Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

Our Angel's Corner archive is here.

MARCH 3,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

TRUMP GAINS – FROM RASMUSSEN REPORTS:  The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-seven percent (47%) disapprove.  The latest figures include 37% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 36% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of +1. This rolling three-day survey now includes two nights following the president’s nationally televised speech to a joint session of Congress and shows a three-point improvement in his overall approval rating since then.  It's tough for this president because he faces the overwhelming hostility of the press.  But little by little he is gaining public respect.

HILLARY – FROM HEATSTREET:   In a rare appearance in public, Hillary Clinton visited Harvard University on Friday and made comments suggesting she may be disappointed with her aides and friends, saying she’d bring “no one” to a deserted island even if she could.  The former presidential candidate appeared at a private Harvard event with a small number of students and was later interviewed about her time as the Secretary of State. During the visit, Clinton was asked which three “non-relatives” she’d bring to a deserted island, according to people attending the event.  “No one,” Clinton replied, raising concerns of what’s left of her close relationship with Huma Abedin and other fellow travelers.  There is bitterness there, which is understandable.  But the fault for her defeat lies with the failure of her and her party to connect with the American people.

THIS IS TRULY NUTS – FROM FOX:   British actor Riz Ahmed issued a warning to the entertainment industry.  The actor said a lack of diversity in television and movies in the U.K. could cause people to "retreat to fringe narratives, to bubbles online and sometimes even off to Syria."  The actor, while addressing British Parliament, said the U.K. has failed to represent minorities on screen.  "If we fail to represent, we are in danger of losing people to extremism," Ahmed claimed.  The 34-year-old rose to fame in 2016 with major roles in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," "Jason Bourne" and HBO's "The Night Of." "If we don't step up and tell a representative story. .. we are going to start losing British teenagers to the story that the next chapter in their lives is written with ISIS in Syria," he told Parliament. "We are going to see the murder of more [members of Parliament] like Jo Cox because we've been mis-sold a story that is so narrow about who we are and who we should be."  So, let's see if I get this right.  One of the root causes of terrorism is bad casting in Hollywood?  Well, yeah, sure.  Hey, why not?  Why, if I don't see an American blogger at his Mac computer on my TV screen, I may just react by blowing up convenience stores.  Makes sense.

March 3, 2017       Permalink

A DOSE OF REALITY – AT 10:54 A.M. ET:  We're being told by the mainstream press that Obamacare is suddenly very popular among the masses.  But is it really true, or playing with numbers.  From IBD:   

Health Reform: The need for an overhaul of ObamaCare just got more acute, as a new survey shows that satisfaction rates among those enrolled in ObamaCare plans has taken a steep nose-dive this year amid premium hikes and reduced choices.

The new coverage of ObamaCare these days has been all about protests against repeal and the alleged increase in public support for the law.

But a survey of actual ObamaCare customers released this week paints an entirely different picture.

It found that just 22% of the 44,200 ObamaCare enrollees polled rate their health plan as good to excellent. That's down from 77% who gave their ObamaCare plans high marks last year.

The reason for the sharp decline was higher premiums, worse service and lack of choice. The survey, conducted by Black Book Market Research, found that 96% reported a decline in customer service support, 90% noted premium increases, 80% said their plans had narrower provider networks, and 77% said their plans' benefits had been trimmed. Nearly two-thirds (61%) complained about lack of competitors in their market.

In other words, the collapse of competition in the ObamaCare exchanges — which left five states and a third of U.S. counties with only one ObamaCare insurer — has led to the rapid deterioration in quality.

Black Book managing partner Douglas Brown says that the remaining plans "failed to congruently ramp up member services support to process claims, respond to enrollment issues, answer provider questions, denials, authorizations, and payment."

None of this, mind you, has anything to do with Republican calls to repeal ObamaCare, since insurers announced their massive rate hikes and their plans to abandon ObamaCare long before the November elections.

COMMENT:  When Obamacare was passed, we were warned by knowledgeable people that it was set up as a trick – with services delivered first, to be followed by large premium increases later.  A typical example of the socialist approach – everything is great for the first year or two, then, when the citizenry is trapped, the deterioration starts.  Eventually, people get used to the lower standards.  It's the equality of misery.

March 3, 2017       Permalink

FASCINATING – AT 10:26 A.M. ET:  Is the Trump Effect beginning to impact Britain?  Maybe so.  From Heatstreet: 

With its new summer school program, Oxford University is seeking to increase educational opportunities for one particular underprivileged group: white, working-class males.

This week’s announcement comes after the Office of Fair Access, a British education regulator, instructed universities last month to make this demographic a “strategic priority” in the coming years. Last year, the Office of Fair Access’s director, Les Ebdon, said white male students’ failure to get a college education was “a shocking and avoidable waste of talent.”

A study by the Sutton Trust, an education charity, released last November, found that fewer than one-fourth of the UK’s poor white boys met basic proficiency standards in key subjects. Moreover, it found that just 45 percent of white British students were college-bound.

Poor, white boys were “less likely than anybody else in Britain to go university,” Theresa May recently said. That’s not quite true—Gypsy/Roma students have even poorer college prospects. But standardized tests show that white, working-class students chart lackluster scores, even as their peers in other disadvantaged ethnic groups showed dramatic improvement in academic performance over the past decade.

“We need a more concerted effort with white, working-class boys, in particular,” the Sutton Trust’s chairman said in November.

COMMENT:  One part of the Trump effect is that it encourages institutions to look at groups that have been neglected, often because of political correctness.  "The forgotten American," the phrase used by Trump during the campaign, originated during the Depression to describe Americans who'd been left behind by a crumbling economy.   There are new forgotten Americans today, and apparently there are forgotten Brits as well.

March 3, 2017       Permalink 

CONFIRMATION – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  Research, admittedly by a conservative group, confirms what we've seen with our own eyes...the incredible anti-Trump bias in the press.  From The Washington Times: 

There was no press honeymoon for President Trump during his first month in office. A meticulous new study by the Media Research Center finds that 88 percent of the broadcast news coverage of Mr. Trump and his team was “hostile” during the first 30 days of office.

The coverage was intense and plentiful. The study, which analyzed both tone and content for evening newscasts on ABC, NBC and CBS, found that the “Big Three” networks produced 16 hours of coverage on the new president and his staff. That is over half — 54 percent — of their total coverage for the month.

“Our measure of media tone excludes soundbites from identified partisans, focusing instead on tallying the evaluative statements made by reporters and the nonpartisan talking heads (experts and average citizens) included in their stories,” write Rich Noyes, research director for the conservative press watchdog, and fellow analyst Mike Ciandella.

“In their coverage of Trump’s first month, the networks crowded their stories with quotes from citizens angry about many of his policies, while providing relatively little airtime to Trump supporters.” the pair noted. “And the networks’ anchors and reporters often injected their own anti-Trump editorial tone into the coverage. ‘It has been a busy day for presidential statements divorced from reality,’ CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley snidely began his February 6 broadcast.
“A new American president is always a big story, but TV news is obsessed with the Trump administration — and not in a good way,” they observed.

COMMENT:  The net effect is that Trump is becoming more popular, and the news outlets are destroying their credibility.

March 3,  2017     Permalink

MARCH 2,  2017

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

COULD IT BE?  FROM AMERICAN MIRROR:   No, Hillary Clinton is not going away.  Someone is making “Hillary for Mayor” signs and plastering them around New York City, several photos posted on Twitter show.  There was one on an advertisement above the 34 Street-Herald Square subway station.  Alternet’s Alexandra Rosenmann posted several other examples.  There was another in a station, one on a train and even on a convenience store entrance:  It’s not clear who’s posting the signs to create a pro-Hillary buzz.  But a January poll found Clinton would trounce Mayor Bill de Blasio in a hypothetical matchup.  I think it's a great idea.  It's a fine retirement position for Hillary.  She'll be among her liberal pals and her Wall Street funders.  She'll get free theater tickets and will Christen garbage trucks.  And she can plan for her next presidential campaign with the knowledge that no New York City mayor in recent times has ever risen above that job. 

WHAT IT'S COME TO – FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:   A judge has granted a restraining order against a Black Lives Matter activist who took his racially charged rhetoric to the law office and home of Los Angeles Police Commission President Matt Johnson.  The intrusion of the activist, Trevor Ferguson, into the commissioner’s private life marked an escalation of a conflict that had previously been confined to public meetings.  Ferguson is part of a group that regularly disrupts the Police Commission’s weekly meetings by chanting and speaking out of turn to express outrage at Los Angeles Police Department shootings of black and Latino people.  Johnson, one of two African American police commissioners, is sometimes singled out by Ferguson and others, who call him a “houseboy” — a derogatory term for a black person who is subservient to whites — amid demands that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck resign and the entire department be disbanded.  This is what passes for political protest in the City of Angels. What California needs is some good law-and-order Republicans in high office.

PERRY CONFIRMED – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   Rick Perry on Thursday became the nation’s energy secretary, placing the former Texas governor atop a department he once wanted to eliminate entirely.  Mr. Perry, a two-time presidential candidate who spent 14 years as the Lone Star State’s chief executive, was confirmed by a Senate vote of 62-37, drawing the support of 11 Democrats and all Republicans in the chamber, other than Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who was not present.  With the vote, President Trump now has his full energy and environmental team in place. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke — who will oversee energy development on federal lands — was approved earlier this week, and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was installed last month.  Mr. Perry took the oath of office on Thursday evening.   Rick Perry is a good man who was a very successful governor of Texas.  He did not make it as a presidential candidate, but I suspect he'll make a fine Cabinet officer.

March 2,  2017     Permalink

AND IN THE ADULT WORLD – AT 12:25 P.M. ET:  There are actually things happening outside American politics.  And they are consequential.  From Bloomberg: 

The threat to U.S. airports from terror groups such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State is expected to grow because of instability in parts of the Middle East and Asia, a former high-ranking intelligence official said Thursday.

The focus on fighting Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has allowed al-Qaeda and its offshoots to “rebound” in countries including Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan, said Michael Morell, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

At the same time, as Islamic State loses territory in Syria and Iraq, the tens of thousands of its fighters who poured in from other countries will leave, and some will try to infiltrate the U.S., Morell said.

“The threat is actually going to get worse over the next several years,” Morell said in an appearance at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Aviation Summit in Washington.

While the threat emanates from groups based in the Middle East and Asia, Morell said more than 80 percent of the people arrested by the FBI on terrorist-related charges in the past three years were U.S. residents, and the majority of them were citizens.

Airport operators and the Transportation Security Administration need to be aware of insiders, possibly inspired by al-Qaeda and Islamic State, he said.

Al-Qaeda and ISIS often concentrate on attacking symbols of the modern world, and airports are at the “center of that target zone,” he said. So-called lone wolf terrorists may not be as focused on the aviation system, but airports remain a prime target because they draw large numbers of people, he said.

Morell served as deputy director at the CIA from 2010 to 2013. He is a senior counselor at the advisory firm Beacon Global Strategies LLC, according to its website.

COMMENT:  The president has been saying pretty much the same thing, but gets ridiculed about it. 

March 2, 2017       Permalink

CARSON CONFIRMED – AT 11:41 A.M. ET:  You would think that a celebrated physician like Dr. Ben Carson, who grew up in the ghetto, would have been confirmed earlier and by acclimation.  But 41 Democrats voted against him.  He is an African-American who won't follow the party line, and that is a sin within the Democratic Party.  From Fox:

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was confirmed by the Senate Thursday to become housing secretary in the Trump administration.

Carson, a former Republican presidential candidate who battled Trump for the GOP nomination, was confirmed for the Cabinet position by a 58 to 41 vote.

In his role as head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, Carson will lead more than 8,300 employees and handle an annual budget of nearly $47 billion.

The vote comes more than a month after Carson earned the bipartisan backing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, even gaining the support of two of the panel’s most liberal members -- Democrats Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Warren, however, switched her position and voted against Carson on Thursday. The vote change comes after she faced pressure from liberal activists and wrote a long Facebook post defending her support of Carson.

Answering critics who questioned his qualifications to run HUD, Carson said during his January nomination hearing that he would go on a “listening tour” so he could gain feedback on how to reform the massive and complex department.

During his Senate hearing, Carson said he wanted to focus on solutions to combat the lack of available low-income housing and to forge new partnerships between government and the private sector.

COMMENT:  Carson brings a unique perspective, having grown up under the very conditions he'll try to change.  But the knives will be out because he'll be confronting the huge welfare/public assistance establishment, which is an industry itself.

Carson is a gentle man who became one of the world's great pediatric surgeons.  He can make a substantial contribution if he's allowed to.

March 2, 2017      Permalink

THE SAME OLD CYCLE – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  The Democrats had one objective after Tuesday's brilliant performance by President Trump, and that was to shift attention from his speech.

The first attempt went badly – trying claim that Trump exploited the widow of Navy Seal William Owens.  That certainly backfired, and made the Dems look like the small timers they really are. 

Now we're on to something new – a story that broke, by some remarkable coincidence, the day after the president's excellent speech.  It deals with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and whether he had contact with Russian officials during the election campaign.  From The New York Times: 

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans began breaking ranks on Thursday to join Democrats in demanding that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recuse himself from overseeing an investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Those calls came after the disclosure that Mr. Sessions himself spoke with the Russian ambassador last year, in seeming contradiction to his testimony at his confirmation hearing.

The partisan furor that broke out with the Justice Department’s acknowledgment of the contacts late Wednesday began to take on a bipartisan sheen as the controversy spilled over into Thursday morning.

The House majority Leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Mr. Sessions “needs to clarify” his testimony and that he also thought Mr. Sessions should recuse himself from Russia-linked investigations.

“I think – the trust of the American people — you recuse yourself from these situations,” Mr. McCarthy said, adding that, “for any investigation going forward, you want to make sure everybody trusts the investigation.”

COMMENT:  It looks like a molehill to me.  Someone will have to prove that 1) the Russians actually tried to interfere with our election to help Trump and 2) that the Trump campaign colluded in it.  Thus far I think the case is weak, but the Democrats are trying to drag out the issue because they have little else.

On the other hand, this follows a disturbing pattern – a Trump triumph one day, followed by an embarrassment the next.  Trump's campaign, after all, had a crudeness about it, and that continued through the early days of his administration.  But I do think Trump, whom I opposed for the nomination, is evolving, and could turn out to be an effective, consequential president, if he can overcome the obstacles being placed before him by a hostile press, an irresponsible opposition, and Trump doubters within the Republican Party.

March 2,  2017     Permalink