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NOVEMBER 10,  2017

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

COMMIES DOWN – FROM RASMUSSEN – This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the communist uprising that led to the creation of the Soviet Union. Nearly three decades after the end of the Soviet threat, Americans still aren't fans of communism and overwhelmingly prefer the existing political system in this country.  Just nine percent (9%) of American Adults have even a somewhat favorable opinion of communism, including three percent (3%) who view it Very Favorably. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 83% regard communism unfavorably, with 65% who have a Very Unfavorable opinion of the discredited political and economic system.   Take that, Marxist professors.  You didn't destroy our children, after all.

WHAT SECURITY? – FROM CBS NEWS:  An undercover operation has revealed that Transportation Security Administration screenings at airports fail for the most part.  Homeland Security investigators found that, more than 70 percent of the time, undercover officers were able to get through TSA checkpoints with mock knives, guns and explosives, the House Homeland Security Committee was told Wednesday. Just two years ago, testing found a 95 percent failure rate, reports CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave.  The hearing was supposed to be closed but was opened to the press after members of Congress decided the findings were too urgent to be kept under wraps.  "We found that briefing disturbing," said Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.  After all these years, and all that money spent.  A 70% failure rate.  Our enemies know about this.

WHAT A JOKE – FROM FOX:  The sexual abuse problem in Hollywood has gotten so bad that the local DA’s office has decided to form a special task force, whose sole purpose is to probe allegations of assault and harassment.  Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced the team’s creation on Thursday as police continue to investigate claims made against some of the movie industry’s biggest names — including producer Harvey Weinstein, director James Toback and actor Ed Westwick.  The investigation will last 50 to 100 years, and conclude that no one saw anything.

November 10, 2017       Permalink

WE MUST UNDERSTAND THEIR OPPRESSION – AT 12:49 P.M. ET:   Parts of American society are breaking down.  The sense of responsibility is disappearing.  The process has been ongoing since the late 1960s.  Here is an example.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

University of Oregon (UO) student protesters who were offered a choice between pardon and punishment for violating the student code by shouting down the university president last month responded Monday by demanding the administration "cease the punitive measures."

In the open letter, UO President Michael Schill and the trustees were accused of having "potentially endangered" the student protesters, who brand themselves the "UO Student Collective," by discussing the incident in the national media.

The dozens of students who rushed the stage where Schill was to give his State of the University address on Oct. 6 and chanted for some 15 minutes about student rights were termed a "minor protest" in the letter, which is signed by Chris Sinclair, president of the university senate; Imani Dorsey, the state affairs commissioner of the student government; Jessica Neafie, president of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation; and Michael Dreiling, president of United Academics, a collective bargaining group representing UO teaching and research faculty.

The letter said, "it is time [for the administration] to de-escalate" after exposing students to "national mockery."

The letter's specific complaints against the administration include "intimidation"; "investigatory errors"; "derailing due process"; "lack of just representation and counsel"; "anticipation of conflict, not engagement" prior to the event; "factual ambiguities" in how UO has discussed the incident; and "lack of oversight" by the Student Conduct and Community Standards Committee in bringing the misconduct charges.

COMMENT:  The suggestion that students might have done something wrong by preventing the school's president from speaking isn't even considered.  There are no rights and wrong in many college "communities" today.  There are only alternative "narratives."

I wonder what employer would want to hire any of these "protesters."

November 10,  2017     Permalink 

TENSIONS RISING – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  We try to remind readers that there's a rest of the world.  You'd never know it judging by the limited news coverage we're getting from the anti-Trump all the time media.  Many important stories are going uncovered.  From AP:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran manufactured the ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Shiite rebels toward the Saudi capital and remnants of it bore “Iranian markings,” the top US Air Force official in the Mideast said Friday, backing the kingdom’s earlier allegations.

The comments by Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, who oversees the Air Force’s Central Command in Qatar, further internationalizes the yearslong conflict in Yemen — the Arab world’s poorest country.

Saudi Arabia long has accused Iran of supplying weapons to the Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies, though Tehran has just as long denied supplying them.

“There have been Iranian markings on those missiles,” Harrigian told journalists at a news conference in Dubai ahead of the Dubai Air Show. “To me, that connects the dots to Iran.”
There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.

COMMENT:  Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran are rising dramatically.  There may be conflict between the two.  The United States would certainly be drawn in.  So would Israel, which might face massive missile attacks from Iranian missiles stationed with Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

We're following this closely.  Fortunately, President Trump understands the threat of Iran.  His predecessor may have understood it, but never cared.

November 10, 2017       Permalink

MOORE ACCUSED – AT 9:20 A.M. ET:  Alabama Republican Roy Moore, running to fill, permanently, the US Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has now been charged in a Washington Post piece with multiple incidents of sexual harassment.  From WND:

Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore charged Thursday the Washington Post launched a “completely false” and “desperate” political attack on him with its report featuring a woman’s allegation he engaged in sex acts with her when she was a 14-year-old, nearly four decades ago.

Moore is the Republican nominee in a special election Dec. 12 for the Alabama U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, who left to become U.S. attorney general.

The Post, which endorsed Moore’s Democratic opponent, cited statements from four women, including one who claimed she went on several dates with Moore when she was 18, another who dated him when she was 17, and a third who said he asked her to go on dates when she was 16, but her mother wouldn’t allow it.

The timeframe would have been when Moore was in his early 30s.

Breitbart News, which previously reported the Post was preparing the story published Thursday, said the only serious claim is from a woman who said he kissed her on a first date and on a second removed her clothes when she was 14.

COMMENT:  I hate stories like this.  I really do.  The Washington Post piece is well researched and reaches appropriate journalistic standards.  But the fact is that these charges, made a month before a special election, relate to events that may or may not have happened almost 40 years ago.

They could certainly be true.  Moore might be guilty.  However, he is intensely disliked by the Republican establishment, has faced ethics issues during his time on the Alabama bench, and is regarded by many as a religious fanatic with little regard for church/state precedents in this country.  No doubt many Republicans would like to see him out of the race, and they've got an excuse.

Moore defeated the establishment candidate for the Senate post, Senator Luther Strange, in a hotly contested primary.  Strange, who was temporarily appointed to the seat after Sessions resigned, was endorsed by President Trump and virtually the entire Republican establishment. 

What should be done?  The charges, coming this late in a transparent attempt to destroy Moore, lower the level of American politics.  And yet, it is hard to see how Moore can continue.  From the president on down, high-level Republicans are demanding that he get off the ticket if he is guilty.  That means, in plain terms, "Get off the ticket."  There is no time to prove guilt or innocence.  In politics, Moore is presumed guilty.

I am not a Moore fan.  But I despise things happening this way.  You may be sure that many of Moore's detractors are the same people who denounce "McCarthyism."  But this is McCarthyism. 

November 10,  2017     Permalink 

NOVEMBER 9,  2017

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

HOW DEMEANING – FROM ABC7:   WASHINGTON (ABC7) — The DC Council has taken a large step towards placing a statue of former Mayor Marion Barry in front of its home.  In a meeting Tuesday, the DC Council Committee of the Whole voted unanimously to a measure that would advance the possibility of adding a statue dedicated to the late mayor in front of the Wilson Building.  The matter was not actually passed today, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said because someone forgot to publish it in the city register, as required by law. Mendelson said it is now on the Consent Agenda of non-controversial items that will be passed all together with one vote in the next council session.  That session could come in as little as two weeks.  What a disgrace, what an embarrassment for African Americans.  The man was a convicted felon, a druggie, a tax cheat, and much more.  I'm sure we'll see calls in Washington in coming years to tear down the Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial.  But Marion Barry will remain.

ONCE A GREAT IDEA – FROM THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:  Following a year of layoffs, ESPN is expected to have another round after Thanksgiving.  Over 100 staffers could lose their jobs in the layoffs, including positions on the television side, producers, executives and those in digital and technology, according to Sports Illustrated. SportsCenter is expected to be "hit hard" and some on-air talent could be out of a job.  ESPN declined to comment to Sports Illustrated about the looming job cuts.  Layoffs have been occurring at ESPN multiple times throughout the last two years.  In October 2015, the company laid off over 300 employees and this past April over 100 reporters and personalities lost their jobs.   People tune to ESPN to see a game, not to get a political lecture.  ESPN hasn't figured that out, and is losing audience by the trainload.

GREAT SENSE OF PRIORITIES – FROM CBS LOCAL:    CHICAGO (CBS) — If you’re not careful, you could be one step away from a big city fine.  CBS 2’s Audrina Bigos reports that two Chicago leaders want you to pay up if you’re texting or talking on the phone while crossing the street.  “Everybody does it and then everybody is irritated when someone else does it. So my total view is I want to look at it. I think it has something to do with peoples own safety,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.  According to city numbers, 27 pedestrians have been killed in Chicago so far this year, which is one death up from last year.  To enforce the proposed ordinance, Chicago Police would hand out tickets with a fine anywhere from $90 to $500.
Ald. Edward Burke and Ald. Anthony Beale are proposing the ordinance. While the ordinance has been sent to a committee to review, there is no timeline on whether or not it could pass.  Undoubtedly a problem, but nothing compared with Chicago's enormous crime problem.  Crossing the street while texting?  Bad.  Crossing the street while being shot at?  Horrible.

November 9, 2017       Permalink

ALERT ON BRITAIN – AT 12:44 P.M. ET:   It hasn't been emphasized by the American press, but the very pro-American British government of Prime Minister Theresa May is in serious trouble.  There is a growing belief that it may not last the year.  May has made series of mistakes, and her campaigning in Britain's election earlier this year was abysmal, bringing the opposition Labour Party back into contention as a major party that could actually take power.

Ordinarily, this would be inside ball.  After all, there are other conservatives, besides May, who could become prime minister.  However, something very ugly is happening in British politics.  The Labour Party, always problematical for its less-than-enthusiastic attitude toward America, is now being run by the most extreme leader it has ever had – a hard leftist who admires Communist dictatorships, has little use for the United States, despises Israel, and is running a party that has become increasingly pro-Islamic and anti-Semitic.  Other than that, he's okay. 

His name is Jeremy Corbyn.  Read about him.   Some months ago, Atlantic ran a profile.  This will keep you up at night:   

Corbyn’s problems represent more than just the rough edges of a career back bencher suddenly thrust onto the dais—there’s an unrefined quality to his world view, a blinkered embrace of far-left positions over the years that make him seem divorced from reality. If left-wing populists don’t jettison their hoarier positions, they risk wreaking as much havoc as their right-wing populist counterparts—if they ever win outright, of course.

Corbyn isn’t an anodyne Danish-style socialist; at times, he seems willing to go all-in, Venezuela-style. He’s so far to the left that he makes Bernie Sanders look like Dick Cheney. “Thanks Hugo Chavez for showing that the poor matter and wealth can be shared,” he tweeted in 2013. “He made massive contributions to Venezuela & a very wide world.” Venezuela, for the record, is currently suffering chronic shortages of everything from food to toilet paper, a mass civil insurrection and murderous police brutality. Last November, Corbyn hailed Cuba’s dead communist dictator Fidel Castro as “a champion of social justice.”

There’s also Corbyn’s embrace of a virtual planet-wide rogue’s gallery of dictators and terrorists. “It will be my pleasure and my honor to host an event in parliament,” he said two years ago,“where our friends from Hezbollah will be speaking. ... I also invited friends from Hamas to speak as well.” Moments later, never-minding Palestinian suicide-bombings and rocket attacks against Jewish civilians, he insisted that Hamas is dedicated to “long term peace and social justice” and that Britain’s labeling of it as a terrorist organization is “a big, big historical mistake.” He reportedly praised Muammar Qaddafi’s “achievements” right at the moment NATO was debating whether or not to intervene on behalf of Libya’s civilian population in Benghazi, an intervention he opposed along with every other military action the U.K. has participated in since World War II. And while he has insisted that former prime minister and fellow Labour Party member Tony Blair should stand trial for war crimes, he was part of a movement in parliament opposing the U.K.’s decision to strike against Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic—an actual genocidaire— denying that the butcher of Belgrade attempted yet another round of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo in 1999.

Corbyn also appeared on Iran’s hysterical state-run propaganda channel Press TV as a paid guest, even after the U.K. suspended its broadcasting license. When U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, Corbyn went on the channel to complain that there was “no attempt whatsoever that I can see to arrest him and put him on trial, to go through that process” and that “this was an assassination attempt, and is yet another tragedy, upon a tragedy, upon a tragedy.”

COMMENT:   Had enough?  It's worrisome that some polls have Corbyn as the most popular politician in Britain.  It is conceivable he could be the next prime minister, but unlikely.  "Conceivable" worries me enough.  And he is changing the Labour Party into a true national and international menace.

Follow events in Britain.  If Corbyn ever gets in, the American left will celebrate, and look for an equivalent for us. 

Quick, my pills!

November 9, 2017       Permalink

ON THE BALL – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:  House Republicans are marking up, making changes in, their tax bill.   The adults in Washington understand that the final bill sent to President Trump, will look entirely different from the House bill now being developed.  The Senate hasn't even weighed in.

And it appears that the Republicans are listening closely to critics.  It turned out that a version of the House bill would have actually increased taxes on the middle class as years went by.   No way, says the Trump White House.  From Newsmax: 

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday that if the Republican tax plan contains any increases for middle-class Americans, President Donald Trump "will not sign it."

"If our numbers here at the White House show the same thing, if they show taxes are going up on the middle class — on the House plan, the Senate plan, on some combination of the two — he won't sign it," Mulvaney, the former South Carolina Republican congressman, told Erin Burnett on CNN.

"He wants lower taxes on hard workers — and he wants it to be easier for them to pay their taxes," he said. "That's one principle.

"The other is he wants that lower corporate rate" of 20 percent, from the current 35 percent, Mulvaney said.

"If those two things are violated, he's not going to sign a piece of legislation," he told Burnett.

"At the end of the day, if we believe this is a middle-class tax increase, he's not going to sign it."

COMMENT:  It couldn't be clearer.  Some "journalists" act as if they've never seen a bill developed before.  Well, maybe they haven't. 

I think Republicans are absolutely determined to get a good bill passed, although the final actions may stretch into 2018.  If there's a delay, CNN and its brethren will jump all over the president.  But if the final bill is good, and Americans get a good break, that's all that will count.

November 9, 2017       Permalink

TAKING IT SERIOUSLY – AT 10:33 A.M. ET:   Some Americans feel the North Korean threat personally.  They have a history.  They remember Pearl Harbor.  And action is being taken.  From the Honolulu Star Advertiser: 

The North Korean nuclear threat will soon enter Hawaii living rooms a little more forcefully as the state adds an “attack warning” wavering-tone siren to its monthly “attention alert” tests for hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes.

At 11:45 a.m. Dec. 1, during regular siren tests on the first business day of each month, 50 seconds of the steady-tone alert will be followed by a pause and then 50 seconds of the attack warning tone, said Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Executive Officer Toby Clairmont.

Clairmont said the last time Hawaii residents heard the attack warning siren test was around 1980 during the Cold War. The siren, if used as an actual warning, would signal the need to immediately seek shelter.

The Russian threat, now far more removed, has been replaced by the unpredictability of North Korea, which exploded a nuclear device Sept. 3 that may have had yielded 250 kilotons or more. By comparison, the Hiroshima blast was about 15 kilotons.

For the foreseeable future, the additional monthly attack warning sirens will be the new norm statewide. Hawaii Emergency Management unveiled a sample of the wavering siren at a preparedness presentation Saturday and in a new public service announcement now running.

COMMENT:  We think of Hawaii as one of the most liberal states in the Union, but Hawaii has a long military history, and its people take defense seriously.

I hope the news networks cover this first test.  It will remind the audience that the North Korean threat is real, and involves actual people.

November 9,  2017     Permalink