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MAY 15,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

GREAT MOMENTS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT – FROM AP:   BERLIN (AP) — Police were called to investigate a domestic disturbance in a southern German town — and found a man arguing with a parrot.  A resident in Loerrach, near the Swiss border, called the emergency number Monday to report his concerns about loud shouting from a next-door apartment that had been going on for some time.  Police said Tuesday that officers sent to the scene found there was a loud argument going on — but it was between a 22-year-old man and a parrot. The man told them he had been annoyed with the bird, which belonged to his girlfriend.  The parrot responded to being shouted at with loud noises of its own. Police said it couldn't speak but could bark like a dog.  Since no one was hurt, the officers left.  On American college campuses, people are arrested for intimidation of the parrot community.  Why is Europe so far behind?

ARE WE SURPRISED? – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   When the Associated Press portrayed this spring's commencement season as a victory for female speakers, the Young America’s Foundation cleared its throat and added a caveat: except for conservative women.  In a review of commencement speakers at the top 101 universities as judged by U.S. News, the conservative youth organization found just three that it classified as conservative – and only one woman – at schools that only featured one commencement speaker.  In fact, Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert is the only conservative speaking at a school in the top 50, at her alma mater Lehigh University (No. 46). The other conservatives are former Southwestern Energy CEO Harold Korell at his alma mater, the Colorado School of Mines (No. 75), and Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon at Yeshiva University (No. 94).  Commencements symbolize the college experience for too many students – only one point of view allowed. 

NO WAY TO RUN A COUNTRY – FROM BLOOMBERG:  Sweden’s got a major supply and demand problem.  By 2025, its entire workforce is expected to grow by 207,000 people—yet it needs more than that number just to staff its fabled welfare state. The worker shortfall could crimp services and raise labor costs, especially in a political environment less hospitable to immigration.  The mismatch is one of the biggest headaches facing Sweden’s next government. Past precedents don’t bode well. The workforce rose by 488,000 between 2007 and 2017, with less than a third of that increase absorbed by the public sector.  Local authorities recruiting 208,000 workers is “not a credible scenario,” said Annika Wallenskog, chief economist at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. The real risk is that the public and private sectors end up competing for the same workers, she said.  The government is going to have to come up with some seriously big ideas on how to make up for future labor shortages.  Not exactly a paradise.  I guess Sweden will have to pay a bonus to people willing to come into the country to run the welfare system.  But it will be vastly expensive.  At some point, as Margaret Thatcher said, you run out of other people's money.

May 15, 2018       Permalink

A SETBACK? – AT 10:47 P.M. ET:  There has been a sudden change in events leading to the planned June summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Un.  From the New York Post:   

North Korea said on Tuesday that they will back out of a scheduled summit with President Trump if the US insists on denuclearization in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.

That is the heart of our position.

The top diplomat for the nuclear-armed North said they will reconsider the summit and that Trump will “remain a failed leader” if he follows the path of past presidents.

The announcement came after the North nixed a high-level summit with South Korea, citing joint US-South Korean military drills off the peninsula.

The scheduled June 12 summit in Singapore would be the first meeting between a serving US president and a North Korean leader.

The meeting was expected to be a major diplomatic achievement for President Trump.

COMMENT:  Obviously, an unexpected jolt.  Things seemed to  be going smoothly.  It is too early to tell whether the North Korean position is fatal to the summit, or simply the start of a negotiating position.

It is also too early to tell whether North Korea is under pressure from China to be tougher on the Americans, or, indeed, under pressure from Iran, with which it has a close relationship. 

It's possible the summit will be cancelled, or delayed.  The left media will immediately declare that a defeat for President Trump, and declare it jubilantly, but the president will know how to turn that around and show that he will not be rolled by the Norks, or any of its friends in the peanut gallery.

I'm sure Secretary Pompeo, who recently met with Kim Jong Un, is on the case.

May 15, 2018        Permalink

THE LIBERAL CRACKUP – AT 12:53 P.M. ET:  We're reading more and more stories, some of them from liberals, acknowledging that there's a kind of intellectual crackup on the left.  Liberals, these pieces say, are destroying themselves.  I say, don't stop them.  From Legal Insurrection:  

Gerald Alexander, an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia, recently wrote an article for the New York Times suggesting that when it comes to Trump, liberals are their own worst enemies. It has become a common joke for conservatives on Twitter to respond to liberal lunacy by saying “Do you want more Trump? Because this is how you get more Trump.”

That idea forms the essence of Professor Alexander’s column:

Liberals, You’re Not as Smart as You Think

I know many liberals, and two of them really are my best friends. Liberals make good movies and television shows. Their idealism has been an inspiration for me and many others. Many liberals are very smart. But they are not as smart, or as persuasive, as they think.

And a backlash against liberals — a backlash that most liberals don’t seem to realize they’re causing — is going to get President Trump re-elected.

People often vote against things instead of voting for them: against ideas, candidates and parties. Democrats, like Republicans, appreciate this whenever they portray their opponents as negatively as possible. But members of political tribes seem to have trouble recognizing that they, too, can push people away and energize them to vote for the other side. Nowhere is this more on display today than in liberal control of the commanding heights of American culture…

Alexander offers many examples of how liberals are causing people to resent them, including the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, recent criticism of Kanye West, false accusations of racism, and the enforcement of concepts like microaggressions in academia.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's worth it.  Liberals have become a liability to liberalism.  They've almost become French.  And, increasingly, the American people are ignoring them, if not turning against them altogether. 

The worst offenders are the liberal journalists.  They are losing influence more quickly than airlines lose baggage.   I just hope they continue their antics through the midterms in November. 

May 15, 2018       Permalink

HORROR STORY – AT 12:15 P.M. ET:  The internet is alive today with reactions to one of the most despicable headlines I've seen in a newspaper recently.  The New York Daily News, which once described itself as New York's hometown newspaper, showed that it is now the hometown paper of the Washington hate-Trump establishment.  It is hard to believe that any newspaper went this far.  From Fox: 

The New York Daily News slammed Ivanka Trump as “Daddy’s Little Ghoul” in a Tuesday cover story mocking the first daughter as “seemingly oblivious” for attending the U.S. Embassy opening in Jerusalem.

The cover ridiculed Ivanka for being “all smiles” at the embassy opening while deadly clashes occurred in Gaza and even referred to her as a “deplorable” in a tweet promoting the derogatory cover.

Attacking the spouses and children of politicians has long been considered off limits, but Ivanka’s role in the administration creates gray area for the first daughter.

The actual story being promoted with the offensive cover doesn’t even back up the “ghoul” remark; the article is a straight-news story that doesn’t mention Ivanka until the fourth paragraph when it simply names members of the Trump administration who attended the opening.

But that didn’t stop the paper from using an image of Ivanka next to a bloody child, who was apparently hurt during the protests. The Daily News cover headline isn’t backed up by any journalism whatsoever, and she isn’t mentioned on the editorial page, either. The only thing inside the paper that coincides with the sleazy cover is a single photo caption noting that Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, celebrated the embassy opening while protests occurred in Gaza.

The online version of the story that accompanied the “deplorable” tweet hardly mentioned the first daughter and didn’t include the over-the-top, anti-Trump images that appear in the hard copy. This essentially proves that the paper sensationalized Ivanka’s role in the protest in order to sell newspapers to its fan base of Trump critics.

Political commentator Britt McHenry told Fox News that the cover is “reprehensible” and calling Ivanka a ghoul lacks “any sort of decency.”

“It’s the same principle at work we saw with Michelle Wolf after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The message is clear: It’s never OK to denigrate or make fun of women unless they are conservative or vote Republican. Then it’s ‘comedy’ or ‘journalism,’ McHenry said. “Not only is the headline bad, but its unethical journalism to super impose her next to the Gaza protests and mislead readers into thinking she was responsible for it.”

Conservative commentator Carmine Sabia told Fox News that the Daily News “has no shame” and doesn’t even “make an attempt” to appear unbiased or impartial.

“This cover was disgusting on another level,” Sabia said. “It is a journalistic abortion.”

COMMENT:  The Daily News should at least apologize for this disgrace, and those responsible should have the decency to resign.  Of course, those things won't happen.  The cocktail-party circuit in Manhattan will no doubt welcome these "journalists" with open arms. 

May 15,  2018     Permalink

MAY 14,  2018

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

JERUSALEM – It's being noticed that not a single Democrat attended the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, despite the fact that it was President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, who made the United States the first nation to grant de facto recognition to Israel when it was founded in 1948.  The Democratic Party is, today, truly the party of Barack Obama.  I'm sure the Dems didn't show because they were afraid to offend the big Hamas vote.  At the same time, Willie Brown, iconic African-American Democratic leader and former mayor of San Francisco, pleaded with Democrats to end their chronic Trump bashing.  The Democratic pros know that the bashing is turning voters off and making the Democratic Party into nothing more than an attack machine.  Not popular.

GROUNDED – FROM CBS LOCAL:    NORTH TEXAS – Starting July 1, ferrets, goats and hedgehogs can no longer fly American Airlines, even if they’re support animals.  They’re just three of a somewhat lengthy list of barred animals the airline has put out in response to an increase in customers transporting a service or support animal onboard their aircraft — more than 40 percent from 2016 to 2017.  “We support the rights of customers, from veterans to people with disabilities, with legitimate needs for a trained service or support animal,” AA said in a statement. “Unfortunately, untrained animals can lead to safety issues for our team, our customers and working dogs onboard our aircraft.”  Some of the changes include additional restrictions on animal types, including sugar gliders and snakes.  There are already reports of a revolt in the goat community over this bigoted act.  A new movement, "Goat Flights Matter," is being formed.

ANOTHER SANDERS? – FROM AMERICAN MIRROR:  Levi Sanders, the only biological son of Vermont senator and 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, is running for Congress in New Hampshire, and he’s speaking his mind about problems in the Democratic Party.  Among the biggest issues is Democrats don’t make voters feel good enough about themselves, he said, unlike the “incredible job” Donald Trump and the Republican Party are doing, the Independent reports.  “The Democratic Party has done a very poor job of bolstering people’s confidence and self-esteem, and that has significant consequences when it comes to reaching out to low-income and working-class people,” Sanders said, pointing to Hillary Clinton’s penchant for talking down to voters.  “When Hillary Clinton used the word ‘deplorable’ that had a significant effect on so many people. They basically said ‘We understand that Donald Trump is not a nice guy, but he is one of us.’ He said ‘Yes, I know I’m a billionaire, but I’m like your weird uncle. I’m not politically correct and I’m not judging you’ and that’s the key.”  Well, one member of the Sanders family has common sense.  That's reassuring. 

May 14, 2018       Permalink

DEM HOPES FADING – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  The media hype told us that this was going to be a banner year for the Democrats.  Why, a blue wave would engulf us.  Obama would bless us.  The non-deplorables would be back.

Uh, not so fast, Barack.  A new reality seems to be settling in.  From The Hill: 

Each day, the impending electoral “blue tidal wave” gets upgraded on the Hawaiian scale of electoral wave strength. Every special election, no matter how small, is inflated to an epic scale that “spells disaster” for the president and the party he commandeered in 2016.

Just one thing stands in the way of this electoral disaster of biblical proportions.

Reality.

The writing is simply not on the wall for a Democratic blow-out. The president’s approval rating has been consistently higher than Obama enjoyed at the same point in his presidency. Economic news has been staggeringly good. The unemployment rate is at a 44-year low. The Democrats have no coherent message. The NRA is flush with cash following this year’s extremist anti-gun rhetoric. And the RNC has 40 million dollars more than the “dead broke” DNC.

Now, this is not to suggest that Republicans will make huge gains themselves. Honestly, how many more offices are left for Republicans to win? The only place where Republicans could see real growth is California, where we might not even be able to field a candidate for governor or senator.

The party’s silver lining for the Golden State is, as always, that California is the living embodiment of the failure of left-wing politics. With no grown-ups in Sacramento, California’s pain is the Republicans’ gain.

And for their electoral woes in the other 49 states, Democrats have no one to blame but themselves.

The party that once genuinely championed the working-class and traditional liberal values has been hijacked by elite coastal millionaires; insane college professors; impossible-to-please social justice warriors; and an unending, unthinking mob of protesters. The Democrats’ “big tent” has become a three-ring circus.

Liberals no longer call themselves “liberal” because they have abandoned the values that word embodies: “liberty.” Instead they now use the Orwellian term “progressive.” Only what we want is progress. Those who disagree will report to the Ministry of Love for re-education.

COMMENT:  I think that says it quite well, don't you?  Rather lovely, indeed.  The numbers right now are just not going in the Dems' direction...but please note that the election is almost six months away.  That's about ten lifetimes in politics.  Republicans should run hard, as if they're 20 points behind. 

Democrats might try to come up with some ideas.  But I'm being unrealistic.

May 14, 2018       Permalink

WHAT CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  The United States Embassy in Jerusalem opens today.  President Trump, unlike his predecessors, actually kept his promise and moved our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, not only keeping a campaign pledge, but recognizing reality.  Of course Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and has been its capital for thousands of years.

Most of the Europeans, of course, are appalled, even though they've been meeting Israeli officials in Jerusalem for decades.  The hypocrisy flows.

But it is a tragic day as well.  Although most of the Arab world appears reasonably quiet, that is not the case with the fanatical followers of the terror group Hamas, who are storming the Israeli border with firebombs and weapons.  At this writing Hamas is claiming that almost 40 have been killed.  Photographs clearly show youngsters being sent into the fight.  You have to ask what kind of movement sends young kids into a battle.  You have to ask what those kids are taught in school.

From Fox: 

At least three of the 37 Palestinians reportedly killed Monday in clashes ahead of the Jerusalem opening of the U.S. Embassy to Israel were “armed terrorists” caught trying to plant a bomb near the border fence in Gaza, Israel's military said.

Israel says more than 35,000 protesters have amassed at a dozen locations along the security fence, and the death toll in Monday’s confrontation is the highest in Gaza since a cross-border standoff between the militant group Hamas and the Jewish state began in 2014, according to the Associated Press.

“Moments ago, an IDF patrol foiled a bomb-laying attack by a cell of three armed terrorists near Rafah, close to the border,” the Israeli military said Monday. “This is a particularly violent protest point. The troops responded with fire at the terrorists. The terrorists were killed.”
Israel also said its aircraft targeted a Hamas post in Jabaliya after troops in the area came under fire. None of the Israeli soldiers were hurt.

“Rioters are hurling pipe bombs and firebombs at IDF troops, burning tires, throwing stones and burning objects, with the intention of setting fires in Israel and hurting IDF troops,” the army was quoted by The Times of Israel as saying.

A senior figure in Gaza's ruling Hamas group said Monday that the border protests will continue until Palestinians have achieved their rights.

COMMENT:  Of course, the Western left is already out with its fake anguish about the plight of the Palestinians (although the deaths of 450,000 Syrians don't interest them at all).  But it's possible that the TV pictures of fanatics charging the border with firebombs will force some people to recognize that the Palestinian "cause" has fallen into terrible hands.

May 14,  2018     Permalink