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 NOVEMBER 30,  2018

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

BUSH 41 IS GONE – George H.W. Bush, 41st president of the United States, has died.   As Tom Brokaw points out, he was the last president of "the greatest generation."  He served as a carrier pilot in World War II.  Funeral details have not been announced, but we're assuming there will be the traditional state funeral in Washington.  President Trump issued a very gracious tribute, striking in light of the real coldness between the president and the Bush family.  The president declined an invitation to Barbara Bush's funeral, and one cannot predict whether he will attend President Bush's. 

CHURCHILL – Today, November 30th, is Winston Churchill's birthday.  He was born in 1874.  He led Britain in the war in which George H.W. Bush fought.  It was Churchill's inspiring leadership in 1940, in Britain's darkest hour, that was instrumental in keeping British morale strong and winning the air Battle of Britain.  Had Britain been defeated, our task after we entered the war in late 1941, would have been infinitely more difficult.  Today it is fashionable to denigrate Churchill as a colonialist and racist.  He was a colonialist, but he was no racist.  The big talkers on college campuses who dismiss him would not have the freedoms they possess had it not been for the leadership of Winston Churchill.

A SIGN OF OUR PATHETIC TIMES – FROM FOX:  A radio station in Ohio has pulled "Baby It's Cold Outside" from its lineup after a listener expressed concern over the holiday song's lyrics.
According to Fox 8, WDOK Christmas 102.1 removed the tune after one listener called the radio station and suggested it's not appropriate to play the 1940's classic in 2018.  “It wasn't really our decision," WDOK host Desiray told the outlet. "It's the decision of our listeners."  "People might say, ‘Oh, enough with that #MeToo,’ but if you really put that aside and listen to the lyrics, it's not something I would want my daughter to be in that kind of a situation,” she continued, explaining that the “the tune might be catchy, but let's maybe not promote that sort of an idea."  According to Fox 8, the Cleveland radio station said they conducted a poll on its website with the majority of voters in favor of removing the song. However, the results were not visible online, Fox 8 reported.  A separate poll on the radio station's Facebook page did show results and they were quite different: 92 percent out of more than 600 voters were in favor of playing the song while 8 percent thought it was inappropriate.  In a free society, we play it and let the listeners decide.    But this is, increasingly, not a free society.

November 30, 2018       Permalink

THE "MIGRANTS" – AT 1:48 P.M. ET:   We are not cold or unsympathetic.  Who isn't affected by the sight of little children at the American southern border?   But who also isn't outraged at the morals of those who send kids up to a border, where clashes with the police are occurring?  We want to help, but we also want the laws of the United States to be followed.  From Townhall: 

New numbers from the Department of Homeland Security show that just 9 percent of asylum claims made by individuals from Central America turn out to be legitimate.

"The low statutory requirements and legal loopholes in our laws encourage aliens to claim credible fear at our Southern border knowing they will be promptly released into the interior with work permits pending the determination of their full claim. In recent years, data shows that more than 65 percent of asylum seekers at our border are from Central America – of those 89 percent pass their initial credible-fear interview," DHS spokesperson Katie Waldman released Thursday afternoon.

"Yet, the harsh reality is that 31 percent of aliens who pass that initial interview do not even show up for their hearing, while a staggering 40 percent of aliens who pass their initial interview do not even file an application."

"Ultimately, only 9 percent of Northern Triangle petitioners are found eligible for asylum by a judge – leaving 91 percent ineligible for asylum," she continued. "The fact that only 9 percent of those who initially claim asylum are found eligible, indicates that we are expending most of our limited resources – detention space, court space and the time of our asylum officers and immigration judges – denying frivolous or illegitimate claims of asylum from the 9 out of 10 who are found ineligible."

Current U.S. immigration law requires illegal aliens traveling from Central America as a family unit, specifically with children, to be released into the interior of the United States after 20 days of federal detention.

"Where are those 91 percent today? While some are properly removed from the U.S. by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), many of those who are released on a promise to appear in court disappear into the country’s interior to live and work illegally. In FY17, only 1 percent of the 226,119 removals conducted by ICE were on Alternatives to Detention," Waldman said.  

COMMENT:  We should point out that anyone can apply for legal entry into the United States, but we cannot accept people trying to rush the border.  Nor can we allow Americans to manipulate the system to allow large numbers of potential Democratic Party voters into the country.

And, of course, please note that there is very little coverage of the countries from which these migrants come.  I guess the press doesn't want to offend the multicultural crowd.  After all, all cultures have their own validity.

November 30, 2018        Permalink    

WE'RE WAKING UP – AT 12:30 P.M. ET:  Weren't you baffled by the strange vote counting in the People's Republic of California?  On election night, it appeared that a number of Republican congressional seats were safe.  And then, in the weeks after the election, "late counting" reversed every one of them.  Now the Republicans are getting woke, and realizing something may be very wrong in those vote counts.   From Fox: 

House Speaker Paul Ryan questioned the legitimacy of California’s ballot-counting process Thursday, adding to claims from many Republicans that the state’s election procedures are flawed.

“It defies logic to me,” Ryan told the Washington Post. “We had a lot of wins that night, and three weeks later we lost basically every contested California race. This election system they have, I can’t begin to understand what ballot harvesting is.”

"Ballot harvesting" is when a third party collects completed ballots from voters and hands them over to election officials. The practice was legal for the first time in California this year.

Ryan has not accused California of any wrongdoing.

Californa took longer than other states to finish counting ballots cast Nov. 6, prompting criticism from many Republicans. By Election Night millions of ballots that were mailed in still needed to be hand-counted.

Alex Padilla, the state's top election official, fired back at Ryan on Twitter, saying the state makes sure "every ballot is properly counted and accounted for. That’s not 'bizarre,' that’s DEMOCRACY.”

“It shouldn’t ‘defy logic’ that elections officials are meticulous in counting every eligible ballot,” Padilla continued, the Mercury News of San Jose reported. “California works to ensure every ballot is counted properly and every ballot is accounted for. In the most populous state in the nation — and the state with the largest number of registered voters — this takes time.”

Democrats flipped six House seats across the state on Election Night. Most of California’s outstanding ballots were those received by mail or received after Election Day. Others were provisional ballots, which are submitted when voters show up to the wrong polling location, or when their name isn’t on the rolls.

The state also allows same-day voter registration, adding to the number of ballots that needed to be verified and counted.

“The way the absentee ballot program used to work and works now, it just seems pretty loosey-goosey,” Ryan said. “Point being, when you have candidates that win the absentee ballot vote, win the day of the vote and then lose three weeks later because of provisionals, that’s really bizarre. And so I just think that’s a very, very strange outcome.

“When you win the absentee ballots and you win the in-person vote, where I come from, you win the election,” Ryan added.

COMMENT:   An inquiry is called for.  There should have been journalistic questions by now, but don't hold your breath.  The press in California is even more leftist than moral.  Dems win?  No questions.

When you see so many counts all go in the same direction, you have reason to wonder.

American Thinker covers the same subject here.

November 30,  2018     Permalink

NOVEMBER 29,  2018

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

WE SURE NEED THIS – FROM BREITBART:  During a Q&A hosted by the Washington Post, House Speaker Paul Ryan positioned Mitt Romney as John McCain’s moral successor.  In one of the last interviews Ryan will have given as House Speaker, he praised his long-time friend, former running mate, and Utah senator-elect. “It’s great that he’s coming,” Ryan said. “Mitt believes there’s a role for him … as a standard-bearer for our party.”  McCain was a maverick GOP element in public perception, often resisting his own party’s majority stance on key issues as a matter of principle. Before his death, McCain famously voted against the repeal-and-replace Republican health care bill that would have crippled Obamacare, drawing Trump’s ire.  The animosity between the two culminated in Trump being asked not to attend McCain’s funeral after he died of brain cancer, apparently in alignment with the late senator’s wishes. Romney is a similarly resistant conservative figure, most recently calling out President Donald Trump for his skirmishes with the “fake news” media.  I would not be shocked if Romney challenges Trump for the 2020 nomination.  Why wouldn't he?  He doesn't want to be in the Senate.  He wants the top job, and in 2020 he'll be 73.  Probably his last chance.

CHILLING – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Google employees debated whether to bury conservative media outlets in search results as a response to President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, internal Google communications obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation reveal.  The Daily Caller and Breitbart were specifically singled out as outlets to potentially bury in search results, the communications reveal.  Trump’s election in 2016 shocked many Google employees, who had been counting on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to win.  Communications obtained by The DCNF show that internal Google discussions went beyond expressing remorse over Clinton’s loss to actually discussing ways Google could prevent Trump from winning again.  The idea of manipulating searches goes far beyond any legitimate concept of freedom of the press.  It's the kind of thing that must be stopped, and I'm sure there are Constitutional ways to stop it.

A PARTY OF CHILDREN – FROM CNBC:  Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who became a hero within the Democratic Party while losing a surprisingly tight race against Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, has already been invited to New Hampshire to speak with voters and meet experienced political operators in the key primary state, CNBC has learned.  Since O'Rourke's loss earlier this month, Rob Friedlander, a senior advisor to the Texas Democrat's campaign, has received calls from the New Hampshire Young Democrats requesting that O'Rourke come to the Granite State, according to people familiar with the matter. The goal would be to have O'Rourke tour parts of the state and interact with voters.  The New Hampshire Young Democrats "extended an invitation via email.  Well, the Dems nominated an empty suit named Obama.  Why shouldn't they nominate empty jeans named O'Rourke?

November 29, 2018       Permalink

A FINE MESS – AT 11:18 P.M. ET:  Remember when General Motors was "the general"?  Stale ad agency rhetoric spoke of "saluting the general" when its stock price rose.  No company symbolized American industry more than General Motors. 

That was a while ago.  Today GM is an "old" name, far less glamorous than Apple or Microsoft, and far less sexy among car buyers than Honda or Lexus.  The general has been demoted.   I looked around the five-story garage adjoining our building a few days ago, and saw only a token number of GM vehicles.  Most of the cars were "foreign," although some were probably made in the United States.

GM recently announced major layoffs that made headlines.  IBD assesses the firm's condition:

GM: General Motors' decision to close four U.S. plants and lay off 14,700 workers, 15% of its domestic workforce, is an economic tragedy. And it might have been avoided if GM had listened to the market, rather than the Obama administration.

During and after the financial crisis, GM decided to do the government's bidding in exchange for billions in subsidies. At one point, the federal government owned more than 60% of its shares, costing it more than $50 billion. By the time it sold the shares in 2013, U.S. taxpayers had an $11.2 billion loss.

How's that working out for GM now? Not very well.

GM's CEO Mary Barra, who took over the company in early 2014, reshaped the company's offerings to please the Obama White House's leftist auto czars, as did her predecessor. Barra has bet the company's future on electric cars and other less-popular offerings, instead of what people want.

"The (GM) restructuring reflects changing North American auto markets as manufacturers continue to shift towards SUVs and trucks," Reuters noted. "In October, almost 65% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. were trucks or SUVs. That figure was about 50% cars just five years ago."

So what was GM making? Well, electric cars, for one. But even with a $7,500 subsidy, they don't sell fast enough. Why? As the joke goes, the extension cord isn't long enough. For anyone who has a long commute or wants to take a road trip, an e-car makes no sense. As such, GM's commitment to electric cars is emblematic of its recent market failures.

Worse, it's based on a kind of environmental fraud. Electric cars aren't "zero emission," as we're constantly told.

For one, building an electric car produces more CO2 than building a regular car. For another, if the car's batteries get their charge from electricity generated by a coal-fired plant, that makes an "electric car" really a coal-fired car.

And...

Lest you think we're being too harsh on GM, it's not alone. Once-dominant GE's shares have plunged nearly 60% this year. There's a common theme here: GE's long slide from grace began when Jeffrey Immelt, GE's former CEO, began spending more time at the Obama White House than running his company.

There's a lesson in this for other companies, summed up in Instapundit Glenn Reynolds' catchphrase:

"Get woke, go broke." Immelt already learned that bitter lesson; Barra is learning it now.

Sadly, GM is just another once-great American company that went wrong trying please a government master, and not the customer. We can only hope other companies will learn from GM's error.

COMMENT:   Well said.  Read the whole thing.  It's worth it.

November 29, 2018        Permalink

NASA IS BACK – AND INSPIRING AS EVER – AT 1:30 P.M. ET:    After years of being virtually ignored by an Obama administration, NASA is roaring back to its position as America's official agency of dreams.  From Fox: 

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says the U.S. is within 10 years of having a continuous manned presence on the moon, which will lay the groundwork for expanding space exploration to Mars.

“Right now we’re building a space station, we call it ‘Gateway,’ that’s going to be in orbit around the moon — think of it as a reusable command module where we can have human presence in orbit around the moon. From there we want reusable landers that go back and forth to the surface of the moon,” Bridenstine told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”

“We think we can achieve this in about 10 years, the idea being prove the capability, retire the risk, prove the human physiology and then go on to Mars,” he continued.

Bridenstine joined “Rising” to detail NASA’s plans to partner with nine U.S. companies to travel to the moon, a key component of NASA’s plan to extend human space exploration.

The administrator said he hopes to drive innovation by creating a commercial marketplace called the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program (CLIPS).

Through the CLIPS program, Bridenstine hopes to develop technology that will eventually establish a continuous Moon presence.

“At the end of the day, what we’re doing is we’re going to buy services where we’re going to have multiple companies competing on cost and innovation to deliver payloads to the surface of the moon — right now we’re just talking about scientific instruments, not large payloads, but building the capability that then feeds forward to larger landers that would include humans,” he said.

The move is part of President Trump’s Space Policy Directive, which calls for revisiting Moon exploration.

COMMENT:   I love it.  I hope I last long enough to see Nancy Pelosi sent to Mars.

November 29, 2018       Permalink 

DONALD STIFFS BORIS – READ ALL ABOUT IT – AT 12:32 P.M. ET:  President Trump has scrubbed a meeting with Russian leader Putin over Ukraine.  From Fox: 

President Trump announced he is nixing a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina on Saturday, in the wake of the seizure of Ukrainian ships and crews in the Black Sea by Russia.

"Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin,” he tweeted Thursday.

“I look forward to a meaningful Summit again as soon as this situation is resolved!” he added.

Trump had told The Washington Post Tuesday that he may not meet with Putin in Buenos Aires after Russian forces fired on Ukrainian naval vessels and seized their crews as they were sailing through the Kerch Strait, near Crimea.

“I am getting a report on that tonight and that will determine what happens at the meeting,” Trump said. “I’m getting a full report on that tonight. That will be very determinative. Maybe I won’t have the meeting. Maybe I won’t even have the meeting. We’re going to see, depending on what comes out tonight.”

He later told the Post that “I don’t like that aggression.”

COMMENT:  The right move.  There will be speculation that Trump is doing this to counter some of the potentially negative developments in the Mueller adventure, but I have to take him at his word.  He's actually been pretty tough on Putin, despite Democratic claims to the contrary.

November 29,  2018     Permalink