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OCTOBER 4,  2017

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

SIGN OF THE TIMES – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   He’s Italian, very tall, a little stiff — and he’s getting round-the-clock police protection.  No, it’s not Bill de Blasio.  In the city that’s the biggest terror target in the world, the NYPD is providing 24/7 body-guard services to the marble statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle.  The patrols, which consist of one or two cops working eight-hour shifts, were set up in hopes of preventing any more vandalism before Monday’s Columbus Day holiday.  “The statue has been there for years and years [since 1892] without any issues,” groused one law-enforcement source.  “Now because everybody’s complaining about Columbus, and they attacked him with paint, we have to put cops on there to make sure nobody does it anymore,” said the source, calling the new patrol a necessary, but irritating, “waste of manpower.”  It's the right thing to do.  Columbus is part of our heritage, the symbol of the European discovery of this continent.  Whether you like him or not, it is unacceptable to allow vandals to deface that aspect of our history.

MICHELLE SPEAKS – FROM FOX:    Former First Lady Michelle Obama said that many people "don't trust politics" because the Republican Party is “all men, all white.”  Speaking about diversity at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women on Tuesday, Obama said it's important to bring in different people to get a broad range of perspectives on every issue.  She said the color and gender dichotomy in Congress was particularly noticeable when she attended State of the Union addresses.  "On one side of the room, it's literally gray and white. Literally, that's the color palette on one side of the room," Obama said. "On the other side of the room, there are yellows and blues and whites and greens. Physically, there’s a difference in color, in the tone. Because one side: all men, all white. On the other side: some women, some people of color.” The ignorance of those remarks is breathtaking.  There are prominent black Republicans, like Ben Carson, Condi Rice and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.  There are prominent Republican women, symbolized by Nikki Haley.  There are no tests for race, gender or ethnicity within the Republican Party, whereas the Democrats have an informal quota system. 

NFL HURTING – FROM HOT AIR:   Pretty soon, it could be NFL team owners on their knees begging TV viewers to come back.  Once again in Week 4 of the 2017 season, as players continued their sitting-kneeling protests against something, former fans silently exercised their right of free speech using TV remotes.  Despite the always insightful, candid commentary of Jon Gruden, this week’s Monday Night game on ESPN lost audience again. It was actually a pretty good game, by all accounts. After the 29-20 win, Kansas City remained the only unbeaten team at 4-0, while Washington fell to 2-2.  This game though drew 13% fewer viewers than last week. And the drop was worse — 16% — in the key demo that ad buyers covet.  The game drew 11.9 million viewers, down almost two million from last week.  The knee brigade should realize that it has lost.  Do whatever you want on your own time, but don't impose your politics when you're invited into the homes of sports viewers.

October 4, 2017       Permalink

TAX PLAN UPDATE – AT 1:18 P.M. ET:   Despite all the trauma of recent weeks, work is proceeding on a new U.S. tax system.  From CNBC: 

House Republicans are leaning toward setting a higher tax rate for wealthy Americans than the one outlined in the framework unveiled by the White House and GOP leadership last week.

That plan called for consolidating the current seven tax rates into just three — 12, 25 and 35 percent. However, it gave lawmakers the option of adding a fourth rate to ensure that high-income households do not receive the biggest benefits—and a senior Republican said they are "highly likely" to take it.

The Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal negotiations, said the precise rate has not been determined. But, the person said, it will not be higher than the current top rate of 39.6 percent.

Publicly, top Republicans in both chambers have pointed to the possibility of a fourth rate to deflect criticism that their tax plan primarily helps the wealthy. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah attacked a recent study by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that found half of the tax benefits in the GOP proposal would accrue to the wealthy. Speaking at a hearing on Tuesday, Hatch said that no numbers have been finalized and called the report a "blank-filling exercise designed to cast the framework in the worst possible light."

"The framework does not include any specific information about things like the break points for the individual tax brackets, the value and indexing of the enhanced child tax credit, or the precise rate for the top bracket," Hatch said. "Without those and other key pieces of information, there is simply no way for any outside party to produce a credible analysis of the framework, let alone a detailed estimate of revenue and the distribution of tax burden."

House Speaker Paul Ryan last week said the goal of tax reform is to help the middle class—and suggested the fourth rate could play a key role in fulfilling that promise.

COMMENT:  At least the boys are at work.   We must have a new tax code.  First, the American people need it.  Second, it will be very important in keeping Republican control of Congress next year.  The Republicans might not be legislative stars right now, but the Democrats are beneath contempt – not even a political party, merely a set of interest groups ready to raid the Treasury.

October 4, 2017       Permalink

PANIC – AT 11:47 A.M. ET:   Will America have a new refugee crisis?  It's possible...and it may come from Puerto Rico.  From Bloomberg:

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello warned Tuesday that millions could flee the commonwealth for the U.S. mainland if sufficient aid doesn’t arrive soon to stem a crisis that’s been unfolding over the past two weeks...The governor told reporters in San Juan that some of the island’s 3.4 million residents were already leaving in search of better conditions. Most of the island remains without electricity, and about half of all residents still lack basic water services after Hurricane Maria.

Rossello said he couldn’t stop the short-term outflow of islanders, but said the exodus would continue without an effective aid package from Congress.

“You’re not going to get hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans moving to the states -- you’re going to get millions,” said Rossello, who briefly lost his voice at one point during the news conference, perhaps a sign of fatigue from the round-the-clock recovery effort. “You’re going to get millions, creating a devastating demographic shift for us here in Puerto Rico, a brain drain.”

A massive outflow on the order described by Rossello would have major implications for the economic and financial viability of the commonwealth. It could even have political ramifications as Puerto Ricans, with their leanings to the Democratic Party, move to places such as Florida in search of better conditions.

COMMENT:  Essentially, this is political blackmail, and little more.  Rossello knows that an outmigration of large numbers of Puerto Ricans to Florida would quickly flip the state into the Democratic column...permanently.  It could even have a profound effect on Texas and Louisiana. 

The blackmail will work.  Puerto Rico will get what it wants.  It was bankrupt before the hurricane, owing more than $70-billion, most of it to Wall Street banks.  Much of that will probably be forgiven, under White House pressure.  And Puerto Rico will go back to its corrupt ways.

October 4, 2017       Permalink

HUH? – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  The Las Vegas killer's girlfriend is back on American soil, and has been interviewed, at least briefly, by the FBI.  The investigation into the massacre is still under the control of Las Vegas police, and they will be interviewing this "person of interest."  But already her family is talking.  From NBC News: 

The Las Vegas gunman bought his girlfriend a ticket to the Philippines and “sent her away” to spare her life, her distraught sisters said Wednesday.

Stephen Paddock bought Marilou Danley “a cheap ticket” to her home country two weeks before he opened fire on a country music concert on the Las Vegas Strip.

Investigators believe Danley, 62, who arrived back in the U.S. late Tuesday escorted by FBI agents, could fill in some of the blanks as to why Paddock assembled an arsenal of guns and killed 58 people.

Clark County, Nevada Sheriff Joe Lombardo described her as “a person of interest."

Her sisters, who live in Australia, believe she knew nothing of Paddock’s deadly intentions.

“She didn’t even know that she was going to the Philippines, until Steve said ‘Marilou, I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines,’” one of the sisters, who spoke on condition they not be identified, told NBC’s Australian partner, Channel 7.

“She was sent away," the woman said of Danley, "so that she will not be there to interfere with what he’s planning." She added that with her sister out of the country, Paddock could plan "without interruptions."

“In that sense I thank him for sparing my sister’s life, but that won’t be to compensate the 59 people’s lives," she said.

COMMENT:  I don't know.  Does that sound right to you?  How would these sisters know why she was sent away?  And why did she go?  Could he order her out of the country? 

We also know that Paddock wired her $100,000 when she was in the Philippines.  Why was that?  To tide her over and get her some premium ice cream?

This whole story doesn't add up.  The guy had a major arsenal.  Didn't Marilou ever see it?  Didn't she suspect anything? 

We await facts.  I'm not sure that's what we're getting.

October 4,  2017     Permalink

OCTOBER 3,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

DOD DROPS SPLC – FROM DAILY CALLER:   The Pentagon has officially severed all ties to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) after previously relying on the group’s training materials on extremism.  Brian J. Field, assistant U.S. attorney from the Civil Division, stated that the Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity removed any and all references to the SPLC in training materials used by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), in an email obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation from the Department of Justice.  The DEOMI is a DOD school founded to fight segregation and inequality that teaches courses in racial, gender and religious equality, among other subject areas like equal opportunity and pluralism. The courses are available to DOD civilians and service members.  A wise move.  The SPLC started well many decades ago, but in recent times has turned into a very wealthy McCarthy-style operation that, in the minds of many conservatives, ruins reputation with no real evidence.  There are better sources out there.

MORE HORROR IN FRANCE – FROM THE TELEGRAPH:   French anti-terror investigators are questioning five people over the discovery of a primed bomb at an apartment bloc in one of Paris's plushest districts, amid government warnings that France is "still at war".  The arrests came as four people were seized in Marseille, southern France, in connection with an attack on Sunday in which a knifeman stabbed two 20-year old women to death in the southern port of Marseille. Police also raided buildings as they sought to piece together where he had stayed before the attack.  With the terror threat at maximum levels, the French parliament today overwhelmingly passed an anti-terrorism bill that boosts police powers to search and restrict people's movements but which rights groups warn restricts civil liberties.  France is a constant target, even though it has pursued a generally pro-Arab and pro-Muslim foreign policy.  Terrorists are not interested in our idea of negotiations.

MAJOR SPORTS NEWS – FROM DAILY CALLER:    An Ithaca College professor calls the patriotic song “God Bless America” a “warmongering” song inappropriate for sporting events.
In a September 28 op-ed for the Ithacan, professor Stephen Mosher claimed that “expressions of hyper-patriotism” like the national anthem and songs like Irving Berlin’s God Bless America have “changed our ‘philosophy’ about what it means to be an ‘American’. "  Mosher, who teaches “sport as political resistance” and “sport and popular culture” for Ithaca College’s Department of Communication Studies, claims that these songs should be banned from sporting events.  “Sporting events don’t need a national anthem,” he claims, adding that following the events of September 11, hyper-patriotism took hold and the song, “God Bless America,” took its place as an unofficial anthem for Americans.  It actually took that place before World War II.  And since when is "God Bless America" a warmongering song?  Here are the lyrics.  Where do they get these professors?

October 3,  2017     Permalink

ANOTHER CONFIRMATION OF PRESS BIAS – AT 2:18 P.M. ET:   The president is in Puerto Rico today, and I've seen an all-out effort by both CNN and The New York Times to make him look as bad as possible.  But why should we be surprised?  From White House Dossier:

Well, not seeing too many stories in the mainstream press about this.

The highly respected Pew Research Center, which hardly has a conservative axe to grind, has found that the press is running three times as many negative stories about President Trump than it did Obama during the same period of his presidency and a little more than twice as many as it did George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

And that’s despite Clinton’s Whitewater mess and other actual scandals, compared to as-yet still imaginary scandal involving supposed Trump-Russia collusion.

Now, I know you, my readers, are not surprised. But it’s nice to have some documentation. 

According to Pew:

Compared with the first 60 days of the Clinton, Bush and Obama presidencies, news outlets’ evaluations of Trump’s start in office were far more negative and less positive. About six-in-ten news stories about Trump’s first 60 days (62%) carried an overall negative assessment of his words or actions. That is about three times more negative than for Obama (20%) and roughly twice that of Bush and Clinton (28% each).

Coverage was also far less positive, with just 5% of stories conveying an overall positive assessment of the president and the administration. This is in sharp contrast to Obama’s first days in 2009, when 42% of the stories offered an overall positive assessment. While the difference is less pronounced, coverage of Bush’s and Clinton’s early days was still at least four times as positive as Trump’s (22% and 27%, respectively).

Both Clinton and Bush received more balanced shares of positive and negative coverage (between 22% and 28%), while 44% and 49% of stories respectively had neither a positive nor negative overall assessment.

Think of that. Only one in twenty stories about Trump have been positive. Imagine if Fox News didn’t exist.

COMMENT:  The report is especially chilling because there's a possibility that Fox News might someday not exist, at least as we know it.  The younger members of the Murdoch family are taking over from father Rupert, and the young 'uns are decidedly more liberal. 

I dread the day.

October 3, 2017       Permalink

MORE ON THE MYSTERY OF LAS VEGAS – AT 12:48 P.M. ET:  This relates to the post just below.  It's clear that many journalists share our view here at Urgent Agenda that the Las Vegas story may grow much larger.  At minimum, there are serious questions and large mysteries.  From NBC News: 

Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock wired $100,000 to an account in his live-in girlfriend’s home country of the Philippines in the week before he killed at least 59 people in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, according to multiple senior law enforcement officials.

Marilou Danley, 62, traveled to Hong Kong on Sept. 25 and was in the Philippines on Oct. 1, when Paddock began his rampage, say officials, but it’s not known whether the money was intended for her, her family or another purpose.

Danley is scheduled to return to the U.S. tomorrow, said the officials. Her arrival airport was not known.

Investigators believe the couple started dating in spring 2017 and lived together in Mesquite, Nevada.

Law enforcement officials told reporters on Monday morning that Danley was not believed to be involved in the shooting "at this time."

"We have had conversations with her and we believed her, at this time, not to be involved. But obviously that investigation will continue,” Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo said. "She was not with [Paddock, the suspected shooter] when he checked in. We have discovered he was utilizing some of her identification."

Danley was initially thought to be traveling with him in Las Vegas.

COMMENT:  There's also reporting that she is now in Tokyo.  Everything about this is suspicious, especially that $100,000 transfer.

I hope our authorities dig very deep.  There may be cover firms involved here, false fronts.  The shooter had access to an arsenal of weapons, a perfect shooting location, and considerable privacy.  Did no one on the hotel cleaning staff notice any of those weapons in his room, which he'd occupied for several days?

October 3, 2017       Permalink

MYSTERY WOMAN? – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  It's a gut feeling, but I'm beginning to feel that the Las Vegas massacre may be a much deeper story than the standard "lone wolf nut case" stuff we're being given. 

He had a girl friend.  She was conveniently out of the country when the horror occurred.  Now the cops want to talk to her.  From Fox: 

The one person who can provide insight into the Las Vegas killer's warped mind -- and potential motive -- remained out of reach of U.S. authorities Tuesday. But they want to talk to her. Soon.
Marilou Danley, the Las Vegas shooter's live-in girlfriend who left the country before Stephen Paddock gunned down 59 people outside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, was cleared as a "person of interest" in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, but there's still plenty of questions officials hope she can answer.

How and when did Paddock acquire his deadly arsenal? And why did he open fire on a country concert crowd, killing dozens and injuring more than 500 people?

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said Monday that Danley, 62, is in Tokyo, although, on Tuesday, her location and estimated return date to America was not immediately clear.

 "She was reported to have been in the Philippines at the time of the incident, but there are unconfirmed reports that she is no longer in the Philippines at this time," Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Robespierre Bolivar told the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday.

Bolivar added there was "no official confirmation yet on her nationality, original or acquired."

Police combing the hotel room Paddock used as a perch for his deadly rampage found Danley’s slot machine card, Clark County Commission Chair Steve Sisola told the Nevada Independent.

Lombardo said Paddock also was carrying some of Danley’s identification.

Those items led police initially to declare her a person of interest and launch a search. But detectives later made contact with her and said that they "do not believe she is involved with the shooting on The Strip."

COMMENT:  I don't think that's the last word.  Why was she out of the country?  Why is her location difficult to track down?  Why hasn't she rushed back, knowing how serious this tragedy is?

I also want to know a lot more about the shooter, and I don't want to hear it from his brother, who's doing the "I'm stunned" bit.  Didn't he ever ask why his brother had all those guns?  And I'm baffled by his assurance that his bro followed no religion.  That's a very odd statement.  How often have you heard it?

I stress that this is speculation on my part.  But I think it's pretty good speculation.  More information please.

October 3,  2017     Permalink