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OCTOBER 22,  2017

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

SUCH ENLIGHTENMENT – FROM DAILYWIRE:   The U.K. government blasted the United Nations for using the term "pregnant women" in a new version of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, claiming the term excludes transgender people who have given birth, and is therefore disrespectful.  The U.N. treaty, which has been in force since the mid-1970s, pledges that the international community will protect "pregnant women," and that signatory countries will make a particular commitment to providing for expectant mothers, including exempting them from the death penalty. The U.N. recently opened up the treaty for small changes that wouldn't impact the overall purpose of the pact.  If a "transgendered" person becomes pregnant, doesn't that make the person automatically female?  Did I skip something in school?

THE HILLARY CORPORATION – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  Hillary Clinton is returning to the campaign trail Sunday in New Jersey where wealthy fans can pay $4,300 for a photo with the former first lady.  Clinton will be stumping for Phil Murphy, the Democratic candidate for governor, at an event closed to the press, with actress Whoopi Goldberg also expected to attend.  General admission tickets, for those uninterested in a photo, cost $1,000, according to an invitation reported by NJ Advance Media.  Republican candidate Kim Guadagno is taking aim at the fact that Clinton will be speaking behind closed doors.  "We've called on Phil Murphy to release a full transcript of Hillary Clinton's speech given behind closed doors to high dollar donors. What's he hiding?" Guadagno's campaign said in a statement.  Of course I have my checkbook out already.  I'll send a dollar.

A HINT? – FROM ESPN:  The debate over NFL player protests during the national anthem has become so big within the league that it has delayed the completion of commissioner Roger Goodell's contract extension, league sources told ESPN.  Goodell's deal is still expected to be completed and has been papered, sources told ESPN, but the process has been slowed while the overwhelming majority of the NFL's attention has been diverted to handling the anthem issue, which has affected TV ratings, merchandise sales and the country's feelings about football.  I just don't think Goodell has been very effective for the NFL during this dispute.  Maybe the contract should be held up a bit longer, or a lot longer, until the audience and advertising losses stop.

October 22,  2017     Permalink

TRUTH TELLING – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:   We all know that the Democratic Party is veering sharply to the left, forced by its constituent groups and its allies in the academic world.  But rarely have I seen the shift described more bluntly, and in such clear context, as in this, from the College Fix: 

Rafael Dagnesses was born in Cuba in 1965, and fled the communist country as a young boy with his family after Fidel Castro executed many of his adopted grandfather’s military comrades.

Dagnesses, who has some experience recognizing communism when he sees it, told a room full of College Republicans recently that when he looks at the Democrat Party, he sees socialism and communism.

“I don’t want the Democrat Party to disappear,” said Dagnesses, a Republican who has twice run unsuccessfully for Congress in recent years.

“Balance is good,” he said, “but the Democrat party no longer exists. Rational, middle of the road Democrats have been hijacked by the leftist, socialist, communist movement.”

Dagnesses made the comments as the keynote speaker at a Bruin Republicans meeting at UCLA on Wednesday.

“I don’t quote books,” Dagnesses, a Marine veteran and former police officer, told the students. “I quote reality.”

COMMENT:  He's saying what a lot of people are thinking.  There was an attempt by the far left to take over the Democratic Party in the late forties.  It was rebuffed, thanks to a coalition led by Harry Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt.  The same crowd, or their kids, made a much more successful attempt in the late sixties.  It's been downhill from there.

October 22, 2017        Permalink

CONDEMNED BY HER OWN – AT 11:33 A.M. ET:   Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC left-wing host, has had a hot streak.  She sometimes even beats her Fox opponents in the ratings.  But now she has apparently gone too far even for her comrades, the proper word, at her political fringe.  From Fox: 

MSNBC star Rachel Maddow’s latest anti-Trump conspiracy theory was so outlandish that even the dependably liberal HuffPost criticized it as "so flimsy that it could be debunked by a quick glance at a map."

On Thursday evening, "The Rachel Maddow Show" opened with a somber 25-minute diatribe that attempted to connect the tragic ambush attack that killed four American soldiers in Niger to the latest version of President Trump’s proposed travel ban, which included the nation of Chad.

Maddow essentially claimed that the inclusion of Chad, which recently pulled its troops out of Niger, in the revised travel ban resulted in extremist attacks such as the one that left four Americans dead.

The HuffPost, which is so anti-Trump that it refused to even cover him in the political section during the early stages of his campaign, published a story headlined, "What the hell was this Rachel Maddow segment?" The MSNBC host proclaimed that Chad’s pullout from Niger "had an immediate effect in emboldening ISIS attacks," but the HuffPost easily shot down her theory.

Colby College Department of Government assistant professor Laura Seay told the HuffPost that "any expert" would have said Maddow's conspiracy theory was "crazy" and the pullout of Chadian troops isn’t necessarily related to the Trump’s travel ban.

"Everybody that I know is appalled by this. I would like to think that Maddow's researchers are more responsible," Seay told the HuffPost.

COMMENT:   Quick success can bring sloppiness and a sense of invulnerability.  Quick success can also breed jealousy in competitors.  Watch it, Rachel.  You're in the danger zone, and mistakes are not tolerated.

October 22, 2017       Permalink

WONDERFULLY SAID – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:47 A.M. ET:  It was shocking this week to see the vicious liberal attacks on General John Kelly, the president's chief of staff.  He is a retired four-star Marine general, whose own son was killed in action in Afghanistan.   Yet, no respect was shown by the liberals, who accused Kelly of everything from lying to, of course, racism.  Michael Goodwin of the New York Post nails it: 

Brian Fallon, a CNN contributor and former Clinton flack, put out an appalling tweet that said in part: “Kelly isn’t just an ­enabler of Trump. He’s a believer in him. That makes him as odious as the rest.”

Others piled on, though it would be hard to top the view of a writer for The New Yorker. Under the headline, “John Kelly and the Language of the Military Coup,” Masha Gessen declared that his remarks “could serve as a preview of what a military coup in this country would look like.”
Wow, I must be slipping. How did I miss a military coup?

Gessen’s evidence includes Kelly’s lionizing of soldiers who died for America, and his decision to take questions only from journalists who had a personal connection to a fallen soldier or knew a Gold Star family.

Gessen called this “a loyalty test,” and was especially outraged that Kelly ended by saying, “We don’t look down upon those of you who haven’t served. In fact, in a way we are a little bit sorry because you’ll have never have experienced the wonderful joy you get in your heart when you do the kinds of things our servicemen and women do — not for any other reason than that they love this country.”

I must be wrong again because I believe Kelly is absolutely right. I believe those of us who never served in the military have missed something essential about America.

We’ve never committed ourselves to defending our country and all it stands for. We’ve never felt the deep bonds created by sharing that commitment with others, and have never been willing to die so that others might live in freedom.

Overall, it is a very good thing that America has a volunteer army, with military leaders happier to have those who enlisted rather than those who were compelled. Yet the lack of broad military service explains some of the disconnect between the ­media and the military.

For those on the outside, then, humility is required, but that’s only part of it. Most important is gratitude for those extraordinary men and women who, knowing the risks, choose to serve.
In that spirit, I thank Gen. Kelly for his valor on the battlefield and at home. That some refuse to hear him, or worse, insult him, is their everlasting shame.

COMMENT:  The decline of the press is a major danger to America.  A profession that can save a country, and a free press can, is also a profession that can destroy it.  The press, and its close allies in the academic world, are aiding in the destruction of what is best about America.  They don't care, and some may not even realize it.  But they will someday miss the nation they are tearing down.

October 22,  2017     Permalink

OCTOBER 21,  2017

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

THE NEED – FROM USA TODAY:   WASHINGTON — President Trump signed an executive order Friday allowing the Air Force to recall as many as 1,000 retired pilots to active duty to address a shortage in combat fliers, the White House and Pentagon announced.  By law, only 25 retired officers can be brought back to serve in any one branch. Trump's order removes those caps by expanding a state of national emergency declared by President George W. Bush after 9/11, signaling what could be a significant escalation in the 16-year-old global war on terror.  "We anticipate that the Secretary of Defense will delegate the authority to the Secretary of the Air Force to recall up to 1,000 retired pilots for up to three years," Navy Cdr. Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.   But the executive order itself is not specific to the Air Force, and could conceivably be used in the future to call up more officers and in other branches.  Our military is understrength, thanks to the policies of Field Marshal Obama, and the budgetary mistakes of Congress, including Republicans.  Trump has pledged to strengthen the armed forces.  We'll hold him to it.

THE CITY BY THE BAY, OR THE JAIL, SOMETHIN' – FROM SFGATE.COM:  In San Francisco, where no automobile parked on the street is immune from glass-smashing thieves, some people have taken to posting signs on car windows announcing that there are no valuables inside.  The hope, of course, is that a thief will read the notice and decide: "Huh. No valuables in this one.  I guess I'll break into some other car."  On Tuesday, a Reddit user posted a photo of such a sign and posed the question "Do you think it works?" to the Reddit community. A lively debate ensued.  "Sounds a lot like something that someone with valuables in their car would say," wrote a skeptical Maddox83a.  The real question is how there could be concern about crime in the nation's paradise, the city of Nancy Pelosi, a place where housing prices are so high that they don't have to worry about the "deplorables."  Could it be that
TRUMP (!!!!!) is sending criminals into the city?  Of course, that's it.  Tell Hillary.

ASTROS TO WORLD SERIES – FROM THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE:  As he tracked the ball through the air, Jose Altuve clung to his bat with his right hand. He ran most of the way down the first-base line this way until he was sure he had hit a home run, at which point he flipped his bat by the nearby coaches' box.  The heroes were many in the 4-0 victory over the New York Yankees that punched the Astros' ticket to only their second World Series in 56 seasons Saturday night at a raucous Minute Maid Park. Charlie Morton recorded the first 15 outs, Lance McCullers Jr. the last 12. Brian McCann came through in the clutch. Alex Bregman cut down a run with his arm.  Minute Maid Park?  Minute Maid Park?  They play a championship game in MINUTE MAID Park?  What have we come to?  What's next? Pampers Diaper Stadium?  We are heading toward the end of our civilization.  It's over.

October 21,  2017       Permalink

TRUMP TO RELEASE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION FILES – AT 2:17 P.M. ET:   It's time, but I wonder if we'll find anything new.  From the Washington Post:  

President Trump announced Saturday morning that he planned to release the tens of thousands of never-before-seen documents left in the files related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination held by the National Archives and Records Administration.

“Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened,” Trump tweeted early Saturday.

Kennedy assassination experts have been speculating for weeks about whether Trump would disclose the documents. The 1992 Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act required that the millions of pages — many of them contained in CIA and FBI documents — be published in 25 years, by Oct. 26. Over the years, the National Archives has released most of the documents, either in full or partially redacted.

But one final batch remains, and only the president has the authority to extend the papers’ secrecy past the October deadline.

In his tweet, Trump seemed to strongly imply he was going to release all the remaining documents, but the White House later said that if other government agencies made a strong case not to release the documents, he wouldn’t.

COMMENT:  There could be material that might best be kept secret, like embarrassing speculation about foreign countries, or names of individuals investigated and then cleared.  But I doubt that we'll see anything significant relating to the guilt of Lee Harvey Oswald.

October 21, 2017       Permalink 

MORE ON THE YOUNG – WILL WE HAVE A COUNTRY? – AT 1:38 P.M. ET:   Okay, let's be fair.  Every young generation has its own levels of weirdness.  I'm just afraid it's getting worse, and that the weirdness will increasingly be seen as normal.  From Marketwatch:

When Coco Layne, a Brooklyn-based producer, meets someone new these days, the first question that comes up in conversation isn’t “Where do you live?” or “What do you do?” but “What’s your sign?”

“So many millennials read their horoscopes every day and believe them,” Layne, who is involved in a number of nonreligious spiritual practices, said. “It is a good reference point to identify and place people in the world.”

Interest in spirituality has been booming in recent years while interest in religion plummets, especially among millennials. The majority of Americans now believe it is not necessary to believe in God to have good morals, a study from Pew Research Center released Wednesday found. The percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 29 who “never doubt existence of God” fell from 81% in 2007 to 67% in 2012.

Meanwhile, more than half of young adults in the U.S. believe astrology is a science. compared to less than 8% of the Chinese public. The psychic services industry — which includes astrology, aura reading, mediumship, tarot-card reading and palmistry, among other metaphysical services — grew 2% between 2011 and 2016. It is now worth $2 billion annually, according to industry analysis firm IBIS World.

COMMENT:  When the choice is between tarot-card reading and The New York Times, I can see why the cards are so popular.

October 21, 2017       Permalink

TODAY'S YOUNG SCHOLARS – I LOVE IT – AT 12:58 P.M. ET:  What a bunch.  What an embarrassment.  From Daily Caller: 

President Donald Trump’s tax plan seems to really resonate with millennials, but only when presented as if it were a proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Campus Reform asked a number of students at George Washington University if they supported some of the features of Trump’s tax plan, but sold the provisions as key parts of Sanders’s vision for tax reform.

The students interviewed were incredibly supportive of a tax credit to make it easier for Americans to have and raise children, lowering the tax rate on small businesses and eliminating the estate tax, which is also called “the death tax.”

Once they realized that the features were all actually part of the Trump platform, however, students said they were pleasantly surprised but still wary of the proposal because it is associated with the current administration.

COMMENT:  I have always felt that they never should have lowered the voting age to 18.  They should have raised it to 25.  Or 50.

Or 75 for liberals.

October 21,  2017     Permalink