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MARCH 2,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:48 P.M. ET: 

EQUAL JUSTICE, WE HOPE – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  The Justice Department is processing a pardon application from former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier after denying him a waiver to apply for a pardon last year.  President Trump repeatedly invoked Saucier during the 2016 campaign after he was sentenced to one year in prison for taking pictures inside a nuclear submarine, arguing Saucier was “ruined” for doing “nothing” compared to Hillary Clinton.  The photos Saucier, now 31, took inside the sub were deemed “confidential,” meaning the lowest level of classification, even though some depicted the vessel’s nuclear reactor. Clinton, by contrast, sent and received more highly classified information on a private and insecure email server.  Give the kid a pardon.  What Hillary did was far worse.

THE GUY HOLDS – FROM RASMUSSEN REPORTS:  The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 49% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove.  The president has had a bad week.  The anti-Trump press is in full fury, the more so since the tax cuts that have just cut in are proving so popular.  And still, Mr. Trump's poll numbers hold.  Maybe the people are tired of the predictable assaults by the fashionably left media..  Maybe they've just tuned out.  After all, a large number of Americans tuned out the NFL, and then the Olympics.  They're showing they can act and think independently, something the left deplores.

WARNING TO REPUBLICANS – FROM THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE:   Texans have already set a record for early voting in a non-presidential primary election year, and there’s still one more day to go on Friday.  More than 602,000 voters had cast ballots in the state’s largest counties in either the Democratic or Republican primaries through Wednesday. That does not count Thursday’s totals that were not available late Thursday, or Friday’s, when polls will again be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Four years ago, fewer than 600,000 people voted in the entire early voting season.  Harris County has also seen a new record. More than 116,000 people have voted early or by mail already with two days remaining to add to that total. Four years ago, just 105,508 people in Harris voted during the entire early voting period.  Democrats represent a major reason for the records and have been out-voting Republicans since the start of early voting on Feb. 20. There have been 25,000 more Democratic ballots than Republicans have cast. That is a big change from the last two gubernatorial election cycles when Republicans dramatically outvoted Democrats in the primaries by well over 100,000 in each year.  Republicans aren't doing the job.  The upcoming midterm elections may well be decided by which party turns out its voters.  Dems seem much more animated and driven this year.  If Dems take over both houses of Congress, Trump will surely be impeached, despite lack of any basis for it, and we'll have an even greater mess than we have today.  The fact that Mr. Trump is holding in the polls should not give us any special confidence.

March 2, 2018       Permalink

TRULY CHILLING – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  Vladimir Putin has plans for us.  Big plans.  He's had them for years, but a certain president we had for eight years just wasn't listening.  From Newsmax: 

Florida's in the crosshairs of Russia's beefed-up nuclear weaponry.

During his annual address to Russia's Parliament, President Vladimir Putin rolled out a video hyping the nation's military tech that featured multiple nuclear warheads streaking through space before raining down on what appears to be the outline of Florida, CNN reported.

"We've developed new strategic weapons that don't use ballistic trajectory at all, which means that missile defense will be useless against it," he boasted.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said department officials didn't enjoy the show.

"It was certainly unfortunate to have watched the video animation that depicted a nuclear attack on the United States," she told CNN. "That's certainly something that we did not enjoy watching. We don't regard that as the behavior of a responsible international player."

One CNN analyst said the video had a target audience of one: President Donald Trump, whose home-away-from-home is in Florida.

"I do think Vladimir Putin was speaking to one audience," national security analyst Samantha Vinograd said. "It wasn't anyone in Russia. It was Donald Trump."

COMMENT:  George W. Bush mistakenly said that he'd looked into Putin's eyes and believed he could work with him.  Trump has said some equally foolish things. 

Obama was beyond salvation, even being caught on tape, when he didn't know the mike was on, promising the Russian president that he could be more flexible after the 2012 election was over.  Nothing like a little honesty, Barack.

I hope the wishful thinking is over.  As Mitt Romney said in the 2012 campaign, to much ridicule, Russia is our greatest geopolitical challenge.  Let's act that way.

March 2, 2018       Permalink

MICHELLE MAKING HER MOVE? – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  Have you noticed that Michelle Obama is making news again?  Gee, I wonder why.  It couldn't possibly be some polling showing she would be a very competitive presidential candidate, would it?  Nah.  From Business Insider: 

Michelle Obama is hopeful about the next generation of leaders in the US.

The former first lady of the US, 54, has been meeting many younger leaders through her work with the Obama Foundation. It's given her a lot of optimism about their approach to leading the country.

"They're tired of watching us do the same old thing and expect different results," Obama said at Klick Health's Muse event in New York on Tuesday. "So I'm optimistic about the future. There are some bright young people out there doing some amazing things."

Those interactions have helped to solidify her plans, which likely won't involve a run for office.

"This is why I'm not going to run for president" she said. "Because I think it's a better investment to invest in creating thousands of mes."

Oh please.  She's not running until she's running.  Oprah said she wasn't running, and now says she'd run if God told her to run.  Her advance men are emailing God.

Rather than just having one "Michelle Obama" vying for the presidency, she hopes to help more people get into leadership positions.

"We don't need just one, we need thousands and thousands," Obama said.

Obama spent eight years in the White House as first lady. The idea of swapping spots with her husband President Barack Obama doesn't appeal to her.

"As an older leader I think an important part of leadership is stepping out of the way and making room," Obama said.

If the Obamas were to trade spots and Michelle decided to run for office, that would limit the country. "We're not finding that new energy out there," she said.

COMMENT:  Of course, most potential candidates say they're not running, and then they answer the overwhelming call of the people, which only they hear.   How can a public servant resist?

President Michelle doesn't sound good to me.  I hope it doesn't sound good to you either.

March 2,  2018     Permalink

MARCH 1,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET:

HOW SAD – FROM FOX:  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday voted against a nomination by the Trump administration to fill a federal judgeship -- and signaled that it's because the nominee is white.  Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor that the nomination of Marvin Quattlebaum, a white judge who is a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Greenville, South Carolina, “speaks to the overall lack of diversity in President Trump’s selections for the federal judiciary.”  Quattlebaum’s nomination, Schumer said, replaces two black judges from South Carolina whom the Obama administration nominated to fill the position — which The Post and Courier notes has long been vacant.  Chuck is running scared in a party that has bolted to the left.  He is seen as insufficiently radical.  If the Dems take over the Senate, I wouldn't be shocked if there's a move to oust Chuck and replace him with a leftist woman.

YOUNG ADULTS ACTING LIKE YOUNG ADULTS – FROM THE INDEPENDENT:   Young adults spend more than six hours a day "stressed out", a study has found.  A poll of 1,000 18-25-year-olds found money, appearance and career worries as well as fears about the future mean a large chunk of their time is spent feeling anxious or under pressure.  But one in 10 feel they have no-one to turn to discuss their concerns, leaving them to face their fears alone.   In other words, they feel like young adults.  It's a difficult, transitional time of life.  I don't see why anyone would be shocked by these findings.

SERIOUS? – FROM MARKETWATCH:   Weight Watchers has new branding and initiatives planned for 2018, including new food guidelines  Weight Watchers International Inc. says it will be shifting its focus from weight loss to overall wellness, and it has hired a new executive to help.  More people are joining Weight Watchers for “something more than getting into a size 8,” Chief Executive Mindy Grossman said on the company’s late Tuesday earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript. Rather, people want to feel healthy at any size or weight and are focused on wellness measures like blood pressure and cholesterol count.  “Today, healthy is the new skinny,” she said.  Uh, I dunno.  Weight Watchers may want a new mission, but that name sends a very definite message, and Blood Pressure Watchers doesn't have much of a ring.  Let's see how this works out.

March 1, 2018       Permalink

PEOPLE GET FOUND OUT – AT 5:29 P.M. ET:   Remember the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and how she behaved after a severe hurricane hit the island?  She was all over TV, denouncing President Trump and suggesting that genocide was occurring.

The liberal press made her into a heroine.  Her people have apparently decided that she ain't.  From Fox: 

The mayor of Puerto Rico’s largest city became an international star when she donned a T-shirt and baseball cap and begged for help after Hurricane Maria left San Juan in shambles. And she became a darling of the left when she took aim at President Trump for not doing enough to help her people.

Six months later, constituents of Carmen Yulin Cruz are still struggling for food, shelter and power, and many have turned on the leader who they say turned her global close-up into a never-ending parade of self-promotion.

“If we don’t get food and water into people’s hands, what we are going to see is something close to a genocide,” Cruz told an international audience after Hurricane Maria roared onto the island in September knocking out power and leveling entire neighborhoods in its path.

Her subsequent feud with Trump over recovery efforts turned her into a liberal star. She’s been on numerous national television shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and scored a high-profile invite to the State of the Union as the guest of New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

After the speech, Cruz characterized the president’s pledges of support to Puerto Rico as “hypocrisy.”

But while Cruz’s pitch-perfect soundbites make for good tv, there’s a growing frustration among her constituents who feel forgotten and say Cruz’s personal political ambitions are coming at the expense of the very people she’s supposed to be representing.

She hired extra photographers to follow her around post-storm and is even scheduled to make multiple appearances in Holyoke, Mass., next month.

COMMENT:  She appeared to be a self-promoter right from the start.  Maybe some reporters should have begun their coverage of her act by asking her why San Juan was so unprepared for the storm.  But that would have been an attack on a woman and a minority, a twofer, and that is not allowed. 

March 1, 2018       Permalink

BULLETIN:  ALBERTO CARVALHO, THE SUBJECT OF THE POST JUST BELOW, ANNOUNCED THAT HE HAS TURNED DOWN THE POSITION OF CHANCELLOR OF THE NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL SYSTEM.  TRANSLATION:  HIS PAST GOT FOUND OUT PRETTY QUICKLY, AND WAS PUBLICIZED BY SOME ALERT, AND HONEST, JOURNALISTS.  WELL DONE.

THIS IS AN ABSURDITY; IT'S ALSO NEW YORK – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  New York's hard-left mayor, Castroite and amateur Sandinista Bill de Blasio, has huffed and puffed in searching for a new schools chief, and the guy he came up with is a beaut.  From Conservative Treehouse:   

According to the New York Daily News, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has hired Miami Dade’s former school head Alberto Carvalho to be the New York School Chancellor. This will NOT end well.  New York parents likely have no idea who their mayor just hired.

In 2013 an investigation into the Miami-Dade School Police Department (M-DSPD) uncovered several police officers, and School Resource Officers, admitting to breaking the law because they were instructed to do so by M-DSPD Police Chief Charles Hurley.  During the investigation, Chief Hurley admitted to giving the police officers instructions to hide criminal conduct by students, because of specific demands by School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

Alberto Carvalho is a very well connected political figure among Democrats.  [Carvalho also has a zipper problem] It was Carvalho’s program to use the police to inflate statistical improvements in schools that eventually led to neighboring Broward County doing the same thing in 2013.  Those policies directly led to the recent school shooting in Parkland.

COMMENT:  He's also an illegal immigrant who later became legal.  Who can ask for anything more?

This is so typical of Bill de Blasio, who is to the left of Bernie Sanders.

But, ultimately, I blame the Republicans.  Rudy Giuliani proved that a Republican can be elected mayor of New York, and he became a great mayor.  Ever since Rudy, though, the Republican Party of New York has retreated to its traditional loser status.  It barely ran a mayoral campaign when de Blasio was elected once, and then again.  Why bother?  These elections are so difficult, and not nearly as much fun as an annual dinner.

Come back, Rudy.

In the meantime, we will watch The New York Times cover up for the new schools chancellor.

March 1, 2018       Permalink

BOOM! – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  The economy roars ahead.  Of course, it's the Obama economy, you understand.  He waved a wand, and this is what happened.  From Bloomberg:

U.S. factories expanded in February at the fastest rate since May 2004, indicating sustained strength in manufacturing as demand remains solid, figures from the Institute for Supply Management showed Thursday.

And more from Bloomberg: 

Americans’ wallets fattened in January on recent tax cuts, indicating increased spending power may boost the economy this quarter.

Real disposable income, or earnings adjusted for taxes and inflation, advanced 0.6 percent from the prior month, the biggest gain since April 2015, according to a Commerce Department report Thursday.

And from MarketWatch:

The rate of layoffs as measured by U.S. jobless claims fell to the lowest level since 1969, reflecting the strongest labor market since the end of the dotcom boom nearly two decades ago. Initial U.S. jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 210,000 in the seven days ended Feb. 24. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast claims to total 226,000. New claims haven't been this low since December 1969. The more stable monthly average of claims declined by 5,000 to 220,500, the government said Thursday. That's also the lowest level since 1969.

COMMENT:  Not bad at all.  I don't know how the Democrats will answer that, except to divert attention from it.  After all, every Democrat in Congress voted against the tax cut.

March 1,  2018     Permalink