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MARCH 18,  2018

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

SORDID – FROM FOX:  The two firms responsible for building Florida International University’s "instant bridge," which suddenly collapsed Thursday and left six people dead, are coming under increased scrutiny as details emerge of past engineering failures and inspection fines -- including a recent accusation that one hired “unskilled” and “careless” workers.  The $14.2-million pedestrian bridge was supposed to open next year to help students cross a busy road adjacent to the campus. It was an accelerated, joint construction effort by two Florida companies: MCM Construction, a Miami-based contractor, and Figg Bridge Design, based in Tallahassee, who both have worked on dozens of projects nationwide, ranging from military facilities to schools.  A full investigation is required.  Who hired these firms?  On what basis?  This didn't look like a very complicated project.

SANITY TRIUMPHS, THIS TIME – FROM IJR.COM:   The New York Police Department (NYPD) reversed its decision to remove armed officers from three schools after it received backlash from parents and the community.  In the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, the NYPD pulled the remainder of its armed school officers as part of Mayor Bill De Blasio's new community policing units.  While unarmed school safety agents would remain at schools, the move was received with backlash from the community.  Francis Lewis High School Parent Teacher Association co-president Linda Lovett told the New York Post:  “It’s ridiculous. All over the country they are telling you ‘arm the teachers, get an officer in your school.’ New York City had a designated officer and they are actually cutting the program ... they are making us less secure."  Rarely do we see a story reporting a sane decision in New York City.  This is a solemn moment.

NO HEAVYWEIGHTS NEED APPLY – FROM THE POLITICO:   The hiring stage of the 2020 shadow primary is underway.  At least a dozen possible Democratic presidential candidates have begun bolstering their teams by adding aides with campaign experience to their Senate staffs, personal offices or 2018 reelection payrolls.  The hires are never explicitly advertised or designed to be about 2020. But the behind-the-scenes shuffle is a long-overdue stage in the traditional precampaign scramble. Potential candidates who have run before — like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden — largely have their core teams in place.  Yet in many other cases, chiefs of staff and senior strategists are now actively looking for new talent after receiving clear instructions from their bosses: I don’t know whether I’m going to run for president, but do everything you need to do to get me in position, just in case.  There isn't a star in the lot.  The Democratic field has many names, but no depth. 

March 18, 2018       Permalink

THIS IS GOOD – AT 2:11 P.M. ET:  Republicans, actually being imaginative, are looking to enhance tax cuts.  From The Hill:

Republicans are increasingly talking about “phase two” of tax cuts — including a permanent extension of the new law’s individual tax cuts — in an effort to highlight their signature legislative accomplishment and force Democrats to take tough votes. 

While Republicans could struggle to pass another tax bill this year, conservatives said that an effort to cement the new individual rates would be both smart policy and smart politics. 

“I am 100 percent behind that and would support it and even help promote it,” said Rep. Mark Walker, (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee. 

President Trump and some key lawmakers have made comments in recent weeks about pursuing additional tax cuts following the enactment of the GOP’s tax-overhaul bill last year.

“We’re actually going for a phase two, which will help in addition to the middle class, will help companies, and it’s going to be something I think very special,” Trump said at an event in Missouri on Wednesday. 

The same day, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said he plans to release new proposals “this year.” 

“We are exploring what good new ideas can be brought forward in tax reform,” he said on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” 

COMMENT:  William F. Buckley Jr. used to say that tax cuts are always good.  I agree.  If they're done responsibly, tax cuts are always good.  The Dems, though, don't agree.  They think the money belongs to them.

March 18, 2018       Permalink

AND IN BRITAIN, THE DISGRACE OF LABOUR – AT 12:37 P.M. ET:   Britain has seen trauma in recent days, with the attempt by Moscow to assassinate two individuals in Britain.  London responded by clearly naming Moscow as the instigator, and by expelling Russian diplomats. 

But one British politician refused to go along – Jeremy Corbin, the far-left leader of the Labour Party, and a man who would like very much to be prime minister.  Corbin has a sordid past, although he comes across in public as just another socialist.  He is not.  He makes Lenin look like Ronald Reagan.

Corbin's behavior has caused an uproar, and may lead to his entirely deserved political demise.  From Daily Mail: 

The Labour leadership was scrambling today to limit the damage from Jeremy Corbyn's refusal to condemn Russia.

Senior frontbenchers took to the airwaves to insist they 'agree with the Prime Minister' amid fears that Mr Corbyn has appeared to be an apologist for Vladimir Putin.

The veteran left-winger was heavily criticised by MPs from all parties last week after he pointedly failed to accept that Moscow was behind the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

Mr Corbyn's spokesman inflamed the row further by arguing that the British security services might not be trustworthy enough to draw a conclusion on the involvement of Russia.  

But in an apparent attempt to shift the party's position, Mr Corbyn's cose allies John McDonnell and Baroness Chakrabarti stressed that Russia is culpable and endorsed the government's reprisals against Moscow.  

Mr McDonnell said the Salisbury incident is 'highly likely' to have been a state execution.

Appearing on ITV's Peston on Sunday, Mr McDonnell said: 'We support exactly what the Prime Minister said and we condemn Russia for this, condemn them. I believe this is a pattern of behaviour we have seen.'

The shadow chancellor said it was important to base judgements on the evidence but added: 'There's a pattern of people being murdered here, therefore it leads you to the conclusion that Putin has questions to answer because this is highly likely this could have been a state execution.'

COMMENT:  It is chilling to think that Corbyn the red might become prime minister, but I'm hopeful that the good sense of most of Britain's voters will prevent that.  I trust it's not a vain hope.

March 18, 2018       Permalink

WAKE UP, EUROPE – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  There are more and more stories out of Europe showing that at least some Europeans, and even some leaders, are starting to be alarmed at the enemies they face.  Maybe they're starting to listen to President Trump.  From Reuters: 

BERLIN (Reuters) - North Korean rockets can now be fitted with nuclear weapons and could reach Germany and central Europe, a top official with Germany’s foreign intelligence agency told lawmakers this week, according to a report in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

BND Deputy Director Ole Diehl told lawmakers during a closed-door meeting that the assessment was “certain,” the newspaper reported, citing participants in the briefing.

At the same time, Diehl said the agency viewed talks between North and South Korea as a positive sign.

No comment was immediately available from the BND.

A senior North Korean diplomat left for Finland on Sunday for talks with former U.S. and South Korean officials, Yonhap News Agency reported, amid a series of diplomatic encounters ahead of a possible U.S.-North Korean summit.

North Korea is pursuing its nuclear and missile programmes in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions and has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

It defends the programmes as a necessary deterrent against perceived plans for invasion by the United States, which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean war. The United States denies such plans.

COMMENT:  There have been some encouraging comments by German officials this week, finally waking up to the fact that the refugee stream from the Mideast constitutes a clear and present danger to European culture.  That doesn't mean, of course, that European culture is all that perfect.  Germany has a history.  But European civilization is still one of the great centers of Western ideas, although bypassed by the United States.  Europe has a right to defend its democratic traditions, although you'd never know it listening to some European "intellectuals" and so-called journalists.

March 18,  2018     Permalink

MARCH 17,  2018

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

THIS WILL NO DOUBT SAVE THE NATION – FROM FOX:   The Army is kissing a decades-long St. Patrick’s Day tradition goodbye in Georgia’s port city, saying smudged lipstick doesn’t go with the uniform.
For more than 40 years, spectators at one of the world’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parades have darted into the street to peck passing soldiers. But this month, Savannah’s parade committee announced that tradition is not to be continued, sparking frustration from longtime residents.  “Even though rules are meant to be broken, I don’t think traditions are,” said Brian Ferguson, who once marched in the parade as a band member.  Mims Deriso wore the lipstick marks proudly when he paraded, seeing it as appreciation for the military. “It’s a shame it’s got to go,” he said.  There are people who actually spent time working to outlaw this.  Hide your ice cream cones.  That's next.

ANOTHER EVIL CONFRONTED – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  The top librarian at MIT recently argued that to make tech workplaces more inclusive and welcoming to women, ditch “Star Trek” posters and other geeky stuff cluttering office walls.  “There is research that shows that workplaces that are plastered with stereotypically ‘tech or nerd guy’ cultural images – think Star Trek – have negative impact on women’s likelihood of pursuing tech work and of staying in tech work in general or in that particular work environment,” said Chris Bourg, director of libraries at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  “Replace the Star Trek posters with travel posters, don’t name your projects or your printers or your domains after only male figures from Greek mythology, and just generally avoid geek references and inside nerd jokes,” Bourg added. “Those kinds of things reinforce the stereotypes about who does tech; and that stereotype is the male nerd stereotype.”  I've always felt that libraries are a threat to national unity.

THE COFFEE BOOM – FROM REUTERS:  NEW ORLEANS - The number of Americans drinking a daily cup of coffee is at the highest level since 2012, with demand continuing to get a boost from at-home consumption and gourmet drinks, an industry study showed on Saturday.  Sixty-four percent of Americans age 18 or over said they had a cup of coffee the previous day in 2018. That compares with 62 percent in 2017 and was roughly on par with levels last seen in 2012, according to results of a survey commissioned by the National Coffee Association (NCA) released during the group's annual meeting in New Orleans.  The survey underscores strong U.S. demand for the caffeinated beverage even as demand for soda and juice continues a years-long decline.  I attribute the higher demand to those little cups that make it so easy to brew coffee.  Thank Keurig and the others.

March 18,  2018     Permalink

NEWT ON TRUMP – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 2:02 P.M. ET:  Newt Gingrich, in my view, is still one of the most astute political observers we have.  He is baffled at how the elites can't understand Donald Trump.  From Fox: 

When President Trump imposed direct trade measures on some foreign products – including solar panels, steel, and aluminum – to protect U.S. industries that were being undercut, the elites reflexively questioned his political-trade-foreign relations acumen. Seemingly none of them stopped to consider that President Trump’s decades of success in international business may provide him with an informed opinion and worldview counter to their own.

As we have seen President Trump make changes to his Cabinet and personal staff, the elites in Washington and the national media have insisted that these decisions are a sign of dangerous instability in the White House. Never mind that the best business leaders and managers routinely make tough staffing decisions to improve their organizations’ long-run initiatives or mission.

It seems the elites simply refuse to think about the Trump presidency through any lens other than that of traditional Washington – despite the fact that President Trump has never been a part of (and represents a departure from) the traditional establishment. This confused, square peg-round hole analytical approach is made worse by the fact that the elites then try to use Washington jargon to define and attack the president.

In the minds of the elite, President Trump doesn’t fit the post-World War II international mold that regards the United States as the world’s only real superpower that can afford to prop up all its allies – and even some of its enemies. For that, the elites claim President Trump is an isolationist.

The president doesn’t fit the traditional Republican free-trader mold because he demands that Americans must benefit from trade agreements. Therefore, according to the elites, he must be a protectionist. 

COMMENT:  I think that's basically correct.  The problem, of course, is that the academic/media complex is dead set against Trump, and is out to destroy him.  They beam their message each day to millions of Americans, who are either watching TV news, reading newspapers, or taking classes.  The complex is powerful, and it changes votes.   It also works through the Washington establishment.

Will the establishment destroy Trump in the end?  It is possible, I'm afraid.  That's what the fight is about.

March 17,  2018     Permalink

A VICTORY – AT 12:18 P.M. ET:  Little by little, we're seeing some victories by conservative free-speech activists at American's colleges and universities.  There is a long fight ahead, but it can be won.  From Daily Caller: 

Pro-life displays at Ohio’s Miami University won’t have to sport “trigger warning” signs after an anti-abortion student group won a free speech battle with the school Friday.

“This is a victory for the free speech rights of students, who should not be told that their support of mothers and their preborn children is some kind of shameful act that should be apologized for or vilified as harmful,” Students for Life (SFL) President Kristan Hawkins said in a March 16 press release, celebrating the university’s decision to rescind its “trigger warning” mandate.

The decision comes after the university’s SFL group filed a suit — “Students for Life at Miami University of Ohio at Hamilton v. Trustees of Miami University of Ohio” — in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in response to a university mandate that SFL post “trigger warning” signs in front of their displays on campus in October.

The displays were simple crosses planted in the ground to represent the number of unborn babies Planned Parenthood has aborted...

...School officials at the time of the suit indicated they would allow a peaceful display of crosses only if warning signs were placed around the campus. The university did not impose the same requirement on any other student group.

COMMENT:  Whether one agrees or disagrees with the students' viewpoint, they should be free to express it without harassment.  That right has now been won, at least at this one school.

March 17,  2018     Permalink