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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

MAY 23,  2018

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

NOT GOOD – FROM DAILY HERALD:  NEW YORK -- New government data show U.S. death rates rose last year, suggesting 2017 will mark the third straight year of decline in American life expectancy.
Death rates rose for Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, flu and pneumonia, and three other leading causes of death.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted the statistics online Wednesday.  Full-year data is not yet available for drug overdoses, suicides or firearm deaths. But partial-year statistics in those categories showed continuing increases.  This should be a major news story, although the mainstream media might be frightened of the details.  We always prided ourselves on ever-increasing life expectancy.  We'd better study the causes of the decline.

GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM – FROM NEWSMAX:   Monica Hesse, a veteran journalist and prize-winning mystery novelist, has been named by the Washington Post as the newspaper’s first gender columnist.  Hesse, who began her career with The Post in 2007 as an intern, is "one of our most distinctive writers, she excels at everything from long-form narratives to breaking news, and is known for writing with poignancy and humor," The Post’s senior editors said.  "[She’ll bring] her signature voice to a wide-ranging column that will explore this defining social issue."   I can't wait.  This is what journalism really needs – a gender columnist.

NIKKI HANDLES IT – FROM THE ALGEMEINER:   Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations was interrupted by protesters waving Palestinians flags while speaking at the University of Houston in Texas on Tuesday.  Less than three minutes after taking the podium, Nikki Haley’s speech on US foreign policy achievements was interrupted by a male protester who accused her of sanctioning “the genocide of a native people.” She seemed startled by the exclamation, muttering, “Oh jeez.”  About two dozen students, some affiliated with the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, quickly rose in unison and chanted, “Nikki, Nikki can’t you see, you are on a killing spree,” and “free, free, free Palestine.”  The disruption continued for more than two minutes, until most of the protesters were removed from the Cullen Performance Hall by police. The audience then applauded and Haley resumed speaking, only to be shouted over once again. “Any more?” she asked to loud applause after the final interruption.  She's terrific, and should be on a national ticket.  But the knives are out for her, as they generally are for any rising star.

May 23,  2018     Permalink

NEW NFL POLICY – AT 2:31 P.M. ET:  The NFL has announced new rules dealing with the "kneeling" issue that erupted last season.  From USA Today:

Amid repeated protests during the playing of the national anthem over the past two seasons, the NFL on Wednesday passed a revised policy that mandates players and team personnel present on the sideline “shall stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem.”

The revision allows players who would not wish to stand to remain in the locker room. Also under the revision, each franchise will have the power to issue their own policies, which could include fines for players protesting the anthem, under the conduct detrimental provision of the league’s personal conduct policy.

The league also now has the power to fine any franchise that has personnel that does not stand or "show respect" while present on the sideline for the anthem.

The policy was passed Wednesday in Atlanta at the spring league meeting.

One issue that may arise is a disagreement with players. Though NFL ownership hammered out the anthem policy over the course of a couple of days in Atlanta, no players or their union were part of the policy change.

“Maybe this new rule proposal that is being voted on is a ‘compromise’ between the NFL office and club CEOs on various sides of the issue, but certainly not with player leadership; we weren't there or part of the discussions,” George Atallah, director of external affairs at the NFL Players Association, wrote on Twitter.

COMMENT:  Already the leftist columnists are erupting, charging that these rules represent deep oppression, racism, the dark ages, and Trumpism.

Seems to me the rules are perfectly reasonable.  No player is required to sing the anthem.  No player is required to place his hand on his heart.  No player is required to speak an oath.

The NFL is a private organization.  Players are invited to join a team.  They cannot be required to do so.  But if they choose to join, they must accept the reasonable, lawful rules of behavior set down by the league, just as television performers must accept the standards and practices of the network for which they work. 

If players cannot accept these reasonable rules, they can gather their millions together and form their own league.

May 23, 2018       Permalink

LET'S HEAR IT FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  Illinois was once known as the land of Lincoln.  Of course, Lincoln is out of style, so maybe we'd better call it the land of Barack Obama.  And Obamaland is having some really serious problems.  All roads lead outward.  From Breitbart:   

Illinois is losing more citizens than nearly every other state, and according to reports, the biggest reason citizens are leaving is that they can no longer afford to live in the Land of Lincoln.

Certainly, Americans move from place to place for a large variety of reasons. From new jobs, to schooling, to weather and family, Americans are a people motivated by the need for change. But in Illinois, one of the major reasons to seek a change of venue is because the state is simply taxing them out of their homes, according to Chicago’s WGN TV.

According to reports, Illinois alone lost 33,703 citizens to outward migration last year. In 2016, the state lost another 37,508 people. A report by the Chicago Tribune also noted that Chicago has been a net loser of its citizens for the last three years running. And the surrounding county was also a net loser of its population.

Indeed, Chicago is unique in the U.S. for being the only major city that has consistently lost citizens over the last five years. The Tribune’s editorial board even published an editorial saying that it no longer makes any sense to live in Illinois.

Because so many citizens are leaving, Illinois dropped from fifth-largest state to number six in 2017, the Tribune reported last year.

One Chicago couple who moved to Tennessee told WGN that the move gave them back an amazing 25 percent of their income that would no longer be lost to property taxes and other expenses associated with living in the deep blue state of Illinois.

Another ex-Chicagoan told WGN that her property tax in Tennessee was the same as those she paid in Chicago, but the size of her property in the Volunteer State is far larger than what she had back home.

Best-selling author Brad Thor, who calls himself an “economic refugee,” told WGN that he fled Chicago to stop “aiding and abetting” the city’s corruption.

COMMENT:  The problem is, many of the people leaving are in the middle class.  The people who run Illinois don't care about them.  They care about the very rich, who fund their campaigns, and the very poor, who are trapped, but will vote for them to maintain "services."  It's the ideal combination for a dim future.  But hey, let the bought politicians and the poverty pimps reign.  What could go wrong?

May 23, 2018       Permalink

THE HEAVY IRAN SANCTIONS – AT 11:08 A.M. ET:  President Trump's decision to reimpose severe sanctions on Iran is already producing results.  From Legal Insurrection:

European companies are leaving the Islamic Republic of Iran in droves fearing U.S. sanctions after President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal earlier this month. The regime in Tehran is “particularly concerned by the decisions of various European companies to halt their Iranian operations until the future of sanctions was clear,” several German newspapers reported on Monday.

“The cascade of decisions by EU companies to end their activities in Iran makes things much more complicated,” Iranian Foreign Minister said. The statement comes days after the French oil company Total pulled out $5 billion worth of investments from Iran, fearing U.S. sanctions.

The EU, backed by the governments of France and Germany, has been scrambling to save the European business interests in Iran. German and French companies had made huge investments in Iranian oil and industrial sectors since the nuclear deal eased sanctions on the regime three years ago.

The EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the bloc’s executive arm, proposed enacting laws to allow European companies to ignore the U.S. sanctions. This so-called ‘blocking statute’ could protect European firms from prosecution by the U.S. Treasury and other agencies.

The Trump administration has made its intentions clear to go after any foreign player found guilty of sanctions-busting in Iran.

COMMENT:  Oh, those Europeans.  Their diplomats float around the world announcing their moral superiority and love of peace, when we know it's all about money.  It's the profits from Iran that drove the Iran nuclear deal, not any desire to restrain one of the worst regimes on Earth.  Hey, isn't that America's job? 

We are reminded of Churchill's admonition about he who feeds the alligator, hoping that he'll be eaten last.  The Europeans are feeding the Iranian alligator, selling him the food, in hopes that the alligator will eat Europe last.

Gotta hand it to President Trump.  His very roughness is exposing certain truths. 

EU diplomats are now reportedly warning Israel that Trump will not be there forever, and that the Israelis had better start obeying the Europeans.  It would be nice if occasionally our European "allies" would warn the enemies of freedom, not its friends.

May 23,  2018     Permalink

MAY 22,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:44 P.M. ET: 

CAN THIS BE TRUE? – FROM BREITBART:  The Republicans have taken a six-point lead over Democrats on the generic ballot in a new tracking poll from Reuters newswire service.  For the week ending May 20, Republicans are at 40.7 percent while Democrats have slipped down to 34.5 percent. The survey was of 1,139 respondents and is the first time in the 2018 cycle, dating  back to the end of May last year, that Republicans have taken a lead ahead of Democrats in the Reuters tracking poll.  A remarkable result.  Expect statements in the next few days that this poll has to be wrong, an outlier, a plant by conservative space aliens, or the work of Big Oil.

THE REVOLT CONTINUES – FROM FOX:  Another California city has joined the fight against the state's sanctuary city laws, which limit local authorities' ability to investigate illegal immigrants' status and communicate with federal immigration officials.  Carlsbad’s City Council voted 4-1 Monday to support the Trump administration's lawsuit against the state's pro-illegal immigrant sanctuary city policies, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.  Carlsbad is located near San Diego, where the all-Republican Board of Supervisors also voted in April to support the federal government's legal action.  It's hard to gauge exactly how far this revolt will go, but there is clearly heavy discontent in much of California with the whole idea of sanctuary cities.  We hope Trump wins his lawsuit.  Ultimately, I suspect the issue of the legality of sanctuary cities will be settled by the Supreme Court.

DUMB AND DUMBER – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  Acting more like a “Secretary of Activism” than a former Secretary of Education, former Barack Obama flunky Arne Duncan tweeted on Friday that parents should keep their kids away from school … “until gun laws [are] changed.”  Duncan elucidated further on MSNBC: “Well I think we have to create attention that hasn’t existed yet and I think only that kind of creative tension can push people to confront an issue that they’d been able to run away from, to hide from, for so long.”  The Daily Caller reports Duncan added, “Either this body count, this loss of life, the killing of innocent children, is acceptable or it’s not.” He “also said that he believes this is a necessary course of action ‘because everything we’ve done before has been a failure.’”   Can you imagine if kids did boycott school, forcing parents to home school, and the kids found out they learned more at home than in school?  Now that would justify a revolution.

May 22, 2018       Permalink

POSSIBLE DELAY – AT 3:46 P.M. ET:   The president said today that the June 12th summit with the leader of North Korea might be delayed.  You could almost sense the jubilation in the Democratic Party, which passionately hopes for Mr. Trump to fail.  From CNBC:

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that there's a "substantial" chance that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "may not work out" for June.

Trump made the remark while he met with Moon Jae-in, South Korea's president, for pivotal discussions ahead of the American president's planned meeting with the North Korean dictator.

"Whether or not it happens, you'll be knowing pretty soon," Trump told reporters at the White House.

He also declined to say whether he has spoken with North Korea's leader.

The summit is scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, which is widely viewed as a neutral site. Yet doubts continue to grow about whether the meeting will actually take place. Trump's remarks Tuesday were the strongest indication yet that the summit might not happen as planned.

Last week, North Korea said it would reconsider whether to hold the meeting after abruptly canceling talks with South Korea amid joint military drills with the U.S. on the Korean Peninsula.

The communist dictatorship also took issue with Trump's national security advisor, John Bolton, who suggested using a denuclearization model similar to one used with North African country Libya. The nation's dictator at the time, Moammar Gadhafi, agreed to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for relaxed U.S. sanctions. Eventually, however, the U.S. supported a violent overthrow of Gadhafi.

North Korea called any attempt to impose a Libya-style arrangement on the country "awfully sinister." Trump has said, though, that the "Libyan model isn't a model that we have at all."

COMMENT:  The president is playing it very cool, making it clear that the June 12th date is not the end of history.  The sneering immediately began on CNN after his comments, but I think Americans understand that this will be a long process, with setbacks as well as advances.  If the meeting doesn't happen at all, expect the U.S. to ramp up military pressure and deterrent power.  That's the Trump way.  The Obama way was to collapse as quickly as possible.

May 22, 2018       Permalink

ARE YOU SHOCKED? – AT 1:31 P.M. ET:    Conservatives talk about this all the time.  Now we have some statistical proof.  From College Fix: 

Another college survey about politics and free speech is out, and it shows that the most intolerant students on campus are those aligned with the Democratic Party.

According to The Dartmouth Survey, when it comes to someone who holds different political beliefs, Dartmouth University students who identify as Democrats are nearly two times as likely not to date such a person compared to Republican students.

They’re also four times as likely not to trust such an individual, and almost six times as likely not to make friends with him/her.

Democrats also are much less likely than Republican students to study and work on course projects with those of differing ideology.

The Dartmouth notes feelings about free speech show a similar partisan divide. While 63 percent of Democrats believe free speech on campus is “very or somewhat secure,” only 21 percent of Republicans feel likewise.

COMMENT:  In truth, this isn't a new problem.  It didn't begin with Trump's election or Obama's emergence on the political scene.  Liberal Democrats have always had a kind of swagger, a sense of moral superiority, but it's gotten much worse in recent years.  And they have had a willing press behind them. 

In 1948 the Democratic Party essentially expelled the far left, led by former Vice President Henry Wallace, leaving responsible liberals in charge.  Sadly, the hard left started returning to the party in the late sixties, led by elements of the civil-rights and women's movements, and aided by "anti-war" types who were often nurtured by Marxist groups.  The intolerance of anyone who disagreed went off the charts.

Bill Clinton tried to move the party back toward the center, and it worked for a time.  But Obama went full- throttle left, and presented himself as a superior demigod.  That is where we stand now.  The party of demigods can't understand how the deplorable won the election.  Shunning them, rather than engaging with them, is entirely logical from their point of view.  Besides, some of the deplorables wear overalls rather than designer jeans.  How can one?

May 22, 2018       Permalink 

WHERE THE PRESIDENT STANDS – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  Well, that was fast.  We've been discussing the pattern wherein the president loses two or three points in the polls over weekends, but then makes up the loss, day by day, during the week.

We're seeing it again, but the "make up" has occurred with lightning speed.  Late last week Mr. Trump was at 50% in Rasmussen.  Yesterday he was at 47%.  But now, today, only a day later, look at this: 

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

The latest figures include 35% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 42% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -7.

COMMENT:  There are no guarantees, but I'm hopeful that the president soars to over 50% during the week.  I am informed by secret sources that leaders of the Democratic National Committee have already ordered ulcer medicine, and commentators at CNN have already been briefed on how to disparage the polls.

We shall watch.  But one thing is clear – the Trump hatred in the media has backfired.

May 22,  2018     Permalink