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OCTOBER 18,  2017

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

THE WORLD WE'VE CREATED – FROM STUDYFINDS:   NEW YORK — If the emoji movie wasn’t symbolic enough of today’s youth, perhaps this will rattle your foundation: A new survey finds that 7 in 10 millennials and the younger Gen Z prefer to communicate digitally — mostly by text message — than in person.  Researchers at LivePerson, a business solutions provider, polled more than 4,000 young adults under between age 18 and 34 in a handful of Western nations, helping them discover the priorities and preferences of today’s millennials and Gen Z.  Globally, 65 percent of those surveyed indicated they talk to peers more frequently via texting or a mobile, but that number is even higher in English-speaking nations. In both the United States and in the United Kingdom, about 74 percent of millennials and Gen Z communicate digitally more frequently with others.  I'm not so sure I like this new world.  What comes next?  Movies where the characters never talk, but just text each other?

OUR FISCAL MESS – FROM CNS:   Real per capita federal spending has increased more than sevenfold since fiscal 1941, which concluded on June 30 of that year — or about five months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  In fiscal 1941, real per capita federal spending was approximately $1,718. In fiscal 2017, which concluded at the end of September, it was about $12,239.  Back in 1941, at the beginning of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's unprecedented third presidential term, the federal government spent $13,653,000,000, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. Although that was a massive increase from the $4,598,000,000 the federal government had spent in 1933, when Roosevelt first took office, it was a pittance compared to what it would spend in the years to come.  What a fiscal legacy we're leaving to the next generation.    And the Democrats want more money for government, not less.

CANADA ACTS ON MASKING – FROM THE TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL:   Quebec has adopted a law that will force people to show their faces when taking the bus or borrowing a book from the library, pushing ahead with legislation that is being criticized for targeting Muslim Canadian women.  Bill 62, which the Justice Minister described as a North American first, requires one's face to be uncovered when giving or receiving public services. The law marks the outcome of a contentious, decade-long debate about the place of religious minorities in Quebec.  Details of how the law would apply have yet to be worked out, but critics are concerned it will empower civil servants such as front-line hospital workers to refuse service to a woman in a niqab or burka.  The law is appropriate.  Respect for religion can be shown, and should be, but governments have a legitimate need to see someone's face.  Identification is important, especially in law enforcement, and masking has a bad history in Western societies.  When in Rome...

October 18, 2017       Permalink

OH COME ON – AT 11:27 A.M. ET:  As the late Jimmy Durante used to say, "Everybody wants to get into the act."  The Hollywood Weinstein case is the latest act, and everybody wants to get into it.  From Fox: 

Harvey Weinstein may face criminal charges.

The Los Angeles City Attorney urged any of the women who say they were sexually assaulted by the disgraced movie mogul to come forward.

"The Weinstein allegations have placed a bright spotlight on sexual harassment and sexual abuse, especially in the workplace," LA City Attorney Mike Feuer said in a statement on Tuesday. "As brave victims come forward, others have been encouraged to do the same. And our nation must now confront these significant issues in a profound way."

Feuer said it takes "tremendous courage for women and men" to share their stories of sexual harassment or abuse and said it is a major issue not only in Hollywood, but across all industries.
He said he is taking the allegations "very seriously" and "where the facts support conviction, we will prosecute."

COMMENT:   Oh the anguish, oh the outrage, oh the shock.  So the L.A. city attorney, whose beat covers the movie industry, never had any inkling of what was going on?  I'd love to see the names on his campaign donor list.  Probably reads like film credits. 

There are real, serious issues here.  And a lot of unserious phonies who are exploiting them.

October 18, 2017       Permalink

A VICTORY – AT 11:06 A.M. ET:  We are winning the war on the battlefield against ISIS.  Our victories have been dramatically accelerated since President Trump and Secretary of Defense Mattis took office.  From IBD: 

Nine months after President Trump promised to defeat ISIS "quickly and effectively," U.S.-backed forces captured Raqqa, which until Tuesday had served as the ISIS capital. The battle now is over who deserves credit: Trump or President Obama.

Trump, not surprisingly, claims it for himself: "It had to do with the people I put in and it had to do with rules of engagement," Trump said in a radio interview.

Before dismissing this as typical Trump self-aggrandizement, consider that for several years Obama insisted that a quick and decisive victory against ISIS was all but impossible.

After belittling ISIS as a "JV" team and then being surprised by its advances, Obama finally got around to announcing a strategy to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the militant Islamic group.

As his strategy dragged on and seemed to go nowhere, Obama kept telling the country that this was just the nature of the beast.

"It will take time to eradicate a cancer like (ISIS). It will take time to root them out."

"This is a long-term and extremely complex challenge."...

...And he kept insisting that winning the war against ISIS has as much to do with public relations as it did weapons. "This broader challenge of countering extremism is not simply a military effort. Ideologies are not defeated with guns, they are defeated by better ideas."

What Obama didn't say is that reason defeating ISIS was taking so long was of how he was fighting it.

COMMENT:  That is correct.  It is the changes Trump made that led to victory.  Read the whole piece.  It shows the difference between a wandering non-leader without enthusiasm and a real, if imperfect, leader who has the will to win.

October 18, 2017       Permalink

SCANDAL, SCANDAL – AT 10:37 A.M. ET:  Let's see if the GOP can hang onto this for more than two days.  If what's reported is true, this is a giant Obama-era scandal.  From the New York Post: 

The Obama administration knew that Russia had used bribery, kickbacks and extortion to get a stake in the US atomic energy industry — but cut deals giving Moscow control of a large chunk of the US uranium supply anyway, according to a report Tuesday.

The FBI used a confidential US witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed the Kremlin had compromised an American uranium trucking company, The Hill reported.

Executives at the company, Transport Logistics International, kicked back about $2 million to the Russians in exchange for lucrative no-bid contracts — a scheme that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the report said.

The feds also learned that Russian nuclear officials had gotten millions of dollars into the US designed to benefit the Clinton Foundation at the same time then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government committee that signed off on the deals, sources told The Hill.

The racketeering operation was conducted “with the consent of higher-level officials” in Russia who “shared the proceeds” from the kickbacks, an agent later stated in an affidavit.

But the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder did not bring charges in the case prior to the deals being cut.

COMMENT:  Well of course Holder didn't bring charges.  The Justice Department under Eric Holder was entirely politicized.

This is worthy of a major Congressional investigation, with Holder and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifying.  Even Barack Obama could be called to testify.

In any decent legal universe, criminal charges might be involved.

That is, if the Republicans have the stomach for real political combat.  Remains to be seen.

October 18,  2017     Permalink

OCTOBER 17,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:57 P.M. ET: 

THE BONKERS WATCH – FROM DAILYWIRE:  Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election was so massive that it was equivalent to the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks in which approximately 3,000 Americans died.  “I think there a lot more connections that have yet to come to light,” Clinton told an audience in London on Sunday, BuzzFeed News reported. “If I had been elected I would have called for an independent commission to get to the bottom of it.”  Clinton proceeded to compare her election loss to the 9/11 attacks, citing “intelligence veterans.”  There's a time when the men in the white suits come, they take you to a lovely place with trees and hills, and they feed you oatmeal and little tablets.  And you stay there, and you don't make speeches.  For one presidential candidate we know, that tîme has come.  The husband can visit.

UNEXPECTED – FROM FOX:   Republican Roy Moore, the anti-Republican establishment candidate, is tied at 42 percent apiece with Democrat Doug Jones in the U.S. Senate race in deep-red Alabama.  A Fox News Poll also finds that among just the 53 percent of Alabama registered voters who are extremely or very interested in the race, Jones has a one-point edge over Moore (46-45 percent).  The special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is December 12.  The competitiveness of the race is striking.  Donald Trump won Alabama by 28 points in 2016, yet the Steve Bannon-backed Moore defeated the president’s favored candidate, incumbent Luther Strange, in the GOP primary.  A stunning poll result.  This was assumed to be an easy win for the GOP.  But Moore is a difficult, controversial character.  He correctly condemns the liberal attempt to rip religion from public life, but may well go, even for conservative Alabama, too far in the other direction.

WHAA...? FOR BEING A CLOWN? – FROM THE MIAMI HERALD:   As Halloween nears, many are considering clown pranks for fright night fun.  At least one sheriff’s office in the state says don’t even think of playing a creepy clown if your aim is mischief.  Volusia County Sheriff’s Office issued a stern warning on its Facebook page Tuesday afternoon.  “Warning to evil clowns and anyone considering creepy clown activity: We will not be there to save you if your intended target defends himself or herself, and you may face other penalties as well,” the post read.  The warning was issued after an 11-year-old boy told deputies Monday that he was nearly attacked in DeLand by a man dressed as a clown, WESH 2 reported. The boy told deputy Justin Lococo he was riding his bicycle and as he approached Pine Ridge High School, a clown jumped from behind a light pole and bushes and tried to grab him.  The boy used his metal selfie stick to whack the clown multiple times, he said.  This is what it's come to.  Even clowns have become dangerous.  And I'm not talking about John Kerry.

October 17,  2017     Permalink

OUT THERE AND ACTIVE – AT 12:50 P.M. ET:   There are optimistic reports about ISIS being on the verge of defeat in Iraq.  But ISIS has several components, and a defeat in one place does not affect their other operations.  From London's Mirror: 

Islamic State terrorists have issued a chilling threat to attack the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

They have swamped social media with an image of a rifle-carrying Jihadi and a bomb bearing the regime’s infamous black flag.

It stands in front of Volgograd Arena in Southern Russia football stadium.

An official symbol of the finals is also included in the alarming promise to bring mayhem to the tournament.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be played across 11 cities in Russia from 14 June to 15 July, when the final will be played at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

COMMENT:  I'm sure the Russkies are taking the threat seriously.  Putin would punish any security officials who allowed a terrorist attack to occur. 

I just hope we're serious.  Under Obama we weren't.   Terrorist acts were called, as you remember, "man-made disasters" or "workplace violence."

October 17, 2017       Permalink

A REALLY GOOD IDEA – AT 10:57 A.M. ET:  Imagine – college students who disagree actually having lunch together, and...and...talking things through.  And not hating each other.  Is it possible?  Yeah, it is, and it's being done in an organized way.  This is good news.  From Daily Caller:   

Students will pair students of different political persuasions for lunch or coffee dates for a University of Virginia student initiative announced Friday.

Converge UVA will match interested students with diverging political views and use guiding questions to attempt to reach a common ground, according to The Cavalier Daily.

“Our Facebook feeds are algorithmically designed to reinforce our own views,” said Jack Wilkins, the UVA student who leads the program’s development, to The Cavalier Daily. “Oftentimes, our friends hold similar views as us so there’s not many avenues to expand beyond that — to challenge your own beliefs.”

Converge UVA’s conversation guider suggests that participants view the interaction as a dialogue instead of a debate and assume that their partner is speaking in good faith.

“It’s a good idea,” said Adam Kimelman, president of the school’s College Republicans. “I’ve done similar things with some of my friends…and it’s definitely a therapeutic way of going about [political conversation].”

“Political party does not define who we are as human beings — our government and our citizens must always work in the pursuit of uplifting one another,” said Brett Curtis, president of UVA’s University Democrats. “Having a conversation, connecting with others over a meal is a great way to start.”...

...Converge UVA’s fall 2017 iteration will occur in late October and November.

COMMENT:  Now there's some common sense.  And I'm delighted to see that it's coming from students.  A well-known college professor said at a private meeting last year that the faculties in our colleges and universities were hopeless, too far gone to the fashionable left to be saved.  But the students were a different story.  Maybe we're starting to see that at UVA.

We'll keep you posted if there are further developments.

October 17, 2017       Permalink

MORE DECLINE FOR THE NFL – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  This is getting serious.  NFL TV ratings prop up the profits of broadcast networks and their cable counterparts, and presumably the companies that advertise during NFL games.  The ratings are tumbling.  From Deadline: 

It felt like a little bit of history was being made on Monday Night Football as the Tennessee Titans finally snapped their 11-game consecutive losses to the Indianapolis Colts last night.

However, as the Titans stopped the streak going to a clean dozen with a 36-22 win and social media sparked with ESPN not showing the playing of the national anthem, another type of history was also being made. Last night’s primetime broadcast of the NFL game stumbled to a season low with a 6.1 in metered market results.

In a season stained by overall ratings declines and political controversy, that NFL Week 6 rating is down 13 % from the early numbers of the much tighter October 9th match-up between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears.

COMMENT:  The NFL owners will huddle in New York today to wring hands, slap backs, and contemplate what to do next.  Taking a knee might be a slick political gimmick, but it has the potential to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.  Viewers are turning off.  Advertisers are turning away.  The NFL brand is seriously tarnished, and trips to Stop and Shop to buy brass polish aren't doing any good.

You may be sure that part of any solution will be a major shakedown, money for silence.  It's one of the oldest games, and Al Sharpton will show the NFL just how it's done.

October 17,  2017     Permalink