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MAY 4,  2018

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

THE MARCH OF JUSTICE – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   A former New Jersey high school student is suing his school’s baseball coach for ordering him to slide during an attempted triple.  During that slide, then-Bound Brook High School player Jake Maser’s cleat dug into the dirt, causing his ankle to turn over. The resultant injury required surgery.  According to My Central Jersey, 2016 Bound Brook graduate Maser ended up suing coach John Suck and the Bound Brook Board of Education for “negligently” and “carelessly” supervising the game.  Watch.  Someone will sue an umpire for not distributing balls and strikes evenly among marginalized groups.

YIKES! – FROM BBC:   A US university faces a fine of $8,500 (£6,280) for apparently losing a small amount of weapons-grade plutonium.  The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said Idaho State University is unable to account for 1 gram (0.03oz) of the material.  The plutonium is used in reactors and to make nuclear bombs but the NRC says the amount missing is too small to make a nuclear weapon.  The university says documents show the material was on campus from 2003-04.  However, an NRC report says that in October 2017 three teams at the university conducted a physical search for the material and failed to find it.  Is this serious?  A university loses weapons-grade nuclear material and gets fined only $8,500?  Says plenty about our sense of priorities. 

UP AGAIN – FROM RASMUSSEN:  The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-nine percent (49%) disapprove.   The president's rise has been consistent over the past ten days.  In Rasmussen, at least, his approval now tops his disapproval.  That is not true in other polls.  The president's strength comes despite almost unprecedented attacks by the mainstream media.  Many people appear to be discounting these attacks.  As usual, the citizenry is ahead of the press.

May 4, 2018       Permalink 

THE SINCLAIR FACTOR – AT 8:48 P.M. ET:  Sinclair Broadcast Group is a conservative group of broadcast holdings.  Some have referred to it as "the junior Fox."  Now, Junior seems to be gearing up to become Senior.  From the Politico: 

Sinclair Broadcast Group, which for months has denied any interest in challenging Fox News while awaiting approval of a merger with Tribune Co., is gearing up to do just that.

Sinclair executive chairman David Smith has been holding meetings with potential future employees, including former Fox News staff members, and laying out a vision for an evening block of opinion and news programming that would compete with Fox’s top-rated lineup, according to a person familiar with the meetings.

Sinclair currently owns the Tennis Channel, and, as part of the $3.9 billion Tribune deal pending before the Federal Communications Commission, would acquire WGN America, a cable network that currently reaches 80 million homes.

Smith, who has been personally involved in at least some of the meetings, still appears to be working through several aspects of the plan, including which of those networks would house his news and opinion programming. He has been discussing a block of at least three hours, but also potentially up to six. Smith is settled, though, on basing his new operation in Washington, D.C., just down the road from Sinclair headquarters in Baltimore, said the person familiar with the discussions. The company already owns local Washington station WJLA, where it produces some of its national content.

The meetings conflict with past statements by Sinclair, denying interest in a national news platform. CEO Chris Ripley told Variety last summer, “After we acquired Allbritton [Communications] in 2014, we looked hard at launching a national cable news channel, but we decided the world didn’t need another cable news platform. ... Our strength is local news. The market for national cable news is very well served.”

Sinclair did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

COMMENT:  I think it's a smart move.  I'm a Fox fan, but Fox is aging, it has gone through some scandals, Roger Ailes has passed away, and Rupert Murdoch, who is kingpin of News Corporation, which owns Fox, is old.  The younger Murdochs, especially James, are apparently far more liberal than Rupert, with possible implications for Fox programming.  Sinclair would be a welcome addition.  I don't know, however, how many areas of the country would actually be served.

May 4, 2018       Permalink

UNEMPLOYMENT PICTURE STAYS GOOD – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:   New-job creation could have been better, but the overall employment situation is solid.  From CNN Money:

The job market hasn't been this good in a very long time.

The unemployment rate dropped below 4% in April for the first time since 2000. The Labor Department reported Friday that it fell to 3.9% — inching closer to territory not seen in half a century.

Employers added 164,000 jobs, slightly below what economists were expecting but better than a comparatively sluggish March.

The report indicates another month of solid job growth for an economy that has been expanding for almost nine years — the second-longest streak on record.

An attempt to give Obama some credit, but the change in national economic psychology began with Trump's election.

Business would be adding even more jobs if they could find the workers they want. There are more than 6 million unfilled job openings in the United States, near a record. The number of people quitting jobs is also historically high, as people leave for better jobs.

"The employment situation continues to surprise everyone," said Robert Frick, chief economist with Navy Federal Credit Union. "Getting down to 3.9 is quite a marker."

Wages grew 2.6% from a year earlier. That was also slightly below expectations.

Hiring gains in April were broad. Professional and business services added 54,000 jobs, health care added 24,000, and manufacturing posted an increase of 24,000 jobs.

The mining sector added 8,000 jobs, extending its gains. Employment in mining has risen by 86,000 since October 2016.

COMMENT:  Republicans, if awake, must make the point that this streak can end if the Democrats/Socialists take the Congress in November.  They believe that your earnings belong to them, not to you.  They will block any economic initiative the president proposes. 

May 4, 2018        Permalink

IS NOTHING SACRED? – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  "Me too" has become "them too."  Even the Nobel Prize is sullied.  From Sky News:

Carl-Henrik Heldin, chairman of the board of the Nobel Foundation, said in a statement posted on Twitter: "The Swedish Academy [which decides the award] has decided to postpone the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, with the intention of awarding it in 2019."

The Nobel Foundation said that the "crisis in the Swedish Academy has adversely affected the Nobel Prize".

It will be the first time since wartime 1943 that the prestigious award is not handed out.

Jean-Claude Arnault, a photographer married to one of the members, is at the centre of sexual misconduct allegations.

The prestigious Academy commissioned a law firm to investigate the matter. It found "unacceptable behaviour in the form of unwanted intimacy" from the man had occurred, but that this had not been "generally known" within the Academy, it said.

The Academy has said the investigation would be turned over to law enforcement agencies.

COMMENT:  What can one say?  And here I thought the Nobel prizes were so pure, so protected against sin and influence.

What do we say to those socialists who have held up Sweden as a role model? 

I can't wait for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Can you?  This year, just to be sure, it is being given by a panel of eunuchs. 

I can't go on.

May 4,  2018     Permalink

MAY 3,  2018

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

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – FROM THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION:   Schools in the United Kingdom are beginning to remove analog clocks from the classroom — because students are complaining that they can’t read them, reports say.  Officials have begun replacing the traditional clocks with digital ones as children have been unable to tell the correct time on analog clocks, The Telegraph reports.  “The current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations,” Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders in England, told the publication. “Nearly everything they’ve got is digital so youngsters are just exposed to time being given digitally everywhere.”  Now, how long do you think it would take a teacher to teach a kid to read traditional clocks?  Fifteen minutes?  Guess it isn't worth it. Much easier to have all the traditional clocks replaced.  And let's get rid of those traditional watches also.  And who needs books?

STUMBLING – FROM FOX:  For NBC News, it was another in a series of embarrassments on Thursday as it had to correct a story saying federal investigators had placed a wiretap on the phone lines of President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen.  As Fox News is reporting, the feds were monitoring only what calls were being made but weren’t listening in — contrary to NBC’s earlier reporting. The Peacock Network’s major turnabout was made more than four hours after the original story moved online Thursday, when it caused immediate chatter in the cable news universe.  NBC had attributed its original story to two anonymous sources with knowledge of the legal proceedings against Cohen. In an editor’s note preceding the rewritten story, NBC explains that three senior U.S. officials disputed the account, saying that the phones were monitored by a pen register, which records the phone numbers on both ends of the conversation, not the substance of the calls themselves.  We don't expect much accuracy from modern media, and we don't get much from some organizations.  NBC ain't what it was.

RIDICULOUS – FROM FOX:  In a move described as an effort to reflect the city’s predominantly black community, the Baltimore Museum of Art is selling works by white men, including Andy Warhol, to make room for paintings and other pieces by black and female artists.  The effort veers significantly from the more typical practice by museums of selling artwork to finance buying pieces that are more valuable, conceded the museum’s director, Christopher Bedford.  The chief goal by the museum is very clearly to diversify its collection, Bedford said in a statement released last month after the Board of Trustees approved the plan.
“The BMA, like any civic museum, must undergo a continuous process of reviewing its collection and identifying areas for growth and refinement with the goal of building a collection that is more relevant to the community it serves,” said Bedford. “The sale of these works, identified by our curators after a very thorough process, will allow us to do just that, and strengthen our collection of contemporary art.”  It would have been far better to try to raise money to acquire more space.  Selling art works on the basis of race is a dismal, authoritarian idea.

May 3, 2018       Permalink 

OUT THEY GO – AT 8:23 P.M. ET:   The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – the Oscar guys – have expelled two members over sex convictions.  From Page Six: 

Convicted pervs Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski have been booted from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscars org announced Thursday.

The academy’s board of governors voted to expel the pair Tuesday “in accordance with the organization’s Standards of Conduct,” it said in a statement.

“The Board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy’s values of respect for human dignity,” the group wrote.

The move comes just a week after Cosby was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman — but 39 years after Polanski pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl.

Calls for their ouster have been growing since the academy rushed to oust Harvey Weinstein in October, as women began coming forward with rape and assault accusations against the producer.

Polanski was arrested in 1977 for raping 13-year-old Samantha Geimer during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson’s home. Geimer testified at the time that the “Rosemary’s Baby” director gave her champagne and a Quaalude then raped her as she begged him to stop.

COMMENT:  Well, at least they expelled convicted offenders, far better than expelling someone on the basis of a charge.  They did it right. 

Of course, if committing the offense itself were the issue, three quarters of the "academy" would be gone by tomorrow morning.

This was also the day when 27 more women accused Charlie Rose of sexual offenses.  If true, the number is astounding.   And no one at CBS knew?

May 3,  2018     Permalink

OH DEAR, SEND ZOLOFT TO THE DEMOCRATS – AT 1:12 P.M. ET:   I don't know much about this chap, Kanye West, except that he's a rap star.  Not exactly my music.  But apparently he's a heavyweight in the black community, especially among the kids. 

So when Kanye all but endorsed Donald Trump recently, it was big news.  And, apparently, the news spread fast among African-Americans and made an impact.   From Daily Caller: 

Black male support for President Donald Trump doubled in just one week, according to a Reuters poll on presidential approval.

A poll taken on April 22, 2018 had Trump’s approval rating among black men at 11 percent, while the same poll on April 29, 2018 pegged the approval rating at 22 percent. It should be noted that Reuters only sampled slightly under 200 black males each week and slightly under 3,000 people overall.

Trump experienced a similar jump in approval among black people overall, spiking from 8.9 percent on April 22 to 16.5 percent on April 29.

Black males were also far more likely to say that they had “mixed feelings” about the president. On the 22nd, 1.5 percent said they had mixed feelings, while 7.1 percent said the same on the 29th.

The results are interesting given the recent transformation of Kanye West, who posted a picture of himself wearing a Make America Great Again hat on his Twitter account last week.

COMMENT:    We've said here before that if the Trump campaign makes a concerted effort in the black and Hispanic communities in 2020, the president might peel off enough traditionally Democratic votes to change national politics.   He has the guts to do it.

May 3, 2018        Permalink

TRUMP HITS 50 PERCENT AGAIN – AT 11:40 A.M. ET:  The president is having a good polling week.  The Rasmussen poll has him today at 50 percent, a psychologically important number: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-nine percent (49%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 33% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 40% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -7.

COMMENT:  Obviously, this can change suddenly.  But the president seems to have his eye on the prize, and that prize is a Republican victory in November, or at least a minimizing of loss.  The talks with North Korea's Rocket Man are coming up.  If they succeed, it will be topping on an already baked cake, filled with actual accomplishments.

A key point in that Rasmussen report, by the way, is the fact that the president's approval and disapproval numbers are almost equal.  At one time the disapproval number was much higher.

The midterms are six months away.

May 3,  2018     Permalink