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OCTOBER 26,  2017

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

WHAT WONDER DID SHE CREATE? – FROM DAILY MAIL:  Hillary Clinton hobbled across the sidewalk on crutches as she left daughter Chelsea's New York home on her 70th birthday.  But she then ditched them to pick up her 'Wonder Woman' award at a star-studded ceremony on Thursday night. 
Hillary, who suffered a broken toe after a fall in London earlier this month, made the superhero-like transformation as day turned to night.  In old-time radio they called this a consolation prize.  I still think she may run again.

TAX RELIEF – FROM USA TODAY:   President Trump on Thursday named Treasury official David Kautter as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service effective when controversial IRS chief John Koskinen's term expires Nov. 12.  Kautter, Treasury's assistant secretary for tax policy since August, will continue to carry out those duties "while we wait to confirm a permanent commissioner," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.  Kautter worked for Ernst & Young for three decades, including some time as chief operating executive for the firm's national tax practices.  “Assistant Secretary Kautter has had an illustrious 40-year career in tax policy, and I am confident that the IRS and the American people will benefit from his experience and insight," Mnuchin said.  Republicans will cheer Koskinen's departure.  They saw him as the true Wicked Witch of the East in the Obama administration.

GREAT MOMENTS IN CITIZENSHIP – FROM ARAB NEWS:  LONDON: A humanoid robot took the stage at the Future Investment Initiative yesterday and had an amusing exchange with the host to the delight of hundreds of delegates.  Smartphones were held aloft as Sophia, a robot designed by Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics, gave a presentation that demonstrated her capacity for human expression.
Sophia made global headlines when she was granted Saudi citizenship, making the kingdom the first country in the world to offer its citizenship to a robot.  “I want to live and work with humans so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people,” she said in an exchange with moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin.  The Saudis finally found a woman who isn't asking for equal rights.

October 26,  2017     Permalink

DECLINE OF THE NFL – AT 12:39 P.M. ET:  Professional football is, presumably, the nation's number one spectator sport, or at least we think so.  But the National Football League is in decline, and can't seem to stop the damage.  From Sporting News: 

The NFL's once-golden network TV numbers continue to drop. 

NFL games averaged 15.1 million viewers through Week 7, according to Nielsen data obtained by Sporting News. That's down 5.1 percent from 15.87 million viewers during the same period last season and off 18.7 percent from 18.35 million viewers during the same period in 2015.

Viewership numbers are lagging for a variety of reasons, not least the ongoing protests during the national anthem that former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began in 2016. Fans are still angry about Kaepernick’s continued unemployment as well as what's seen as the growing politicization of the NFL.

In addition, President Donald Trump continues to attack the league for not forcing all players to stand during the anthem. Commissioner Roger Goodell and player reps met last week to seek a way forward, but there wasn’t much progress, and players continue to protest.

More than 20 NFL players sat, took a knee, raised a fist or stayed in the tunnel during Week 7 games, according to The Associated Press. 

The NFL’s network TV partners, for their part, refuse to show, much less discuss, player protests on the air during game telecasts after airing them for a brief time earlier in the season.

COMMENT:  Some of the more popular teams are actually showing some rebound in the TV ratings, but I'm afraid the damage to the NFL's image may be permanent.  Some of that damage was inflicted by the politicization of ESPN.  People are just tired of it.

Popularity is always fragile, and it's often harder to stay at the top than to get there.  The NFL seems to be working hard to destroy itself, starting with a fundamental mistake – getting in bed with the political left.  The left, which has no friends, only interests, will consume anyone.  It has no loyalties.  The NFL can appease the left all it wishes.  If the left decides that destroying the NFL is in its interest, it will try to do so.

October 26, 2017       Permalink

ANOTHER ONE FALLS – AT 11:16 A.M. ET:  There is no bigger name in TV political analysis than Mark Halperin.  Once an ABC stalwart, he has recently flown his flag at NBC. 

No more.  Halperin has been brought down by another in the wave of sexual harassment allegations we've seen recently.  From Fox:

Mark Halperin, the NBC and MSNBC analyst who co-authored the bestselling 2008 election postmortem "Game Change," is leaving both networks after five women accused him of sexual harassment in a CNN report published Wednesday.

"We find the story and the allegations very troubling. Mark Halperin is leaving his role as a contributor until the questions around his past conduct are fully understood," MSNBC told Fox News in a statement. 

The powerful journalist's alleged behavior occured while he was at ABC News, according to CNN, which said the five women's complaints were corroborated by others who did not personally experience the harassment...

...Halperin admited to CNN Wednesday night that his conduct was inappropriate, and he said he would take time away from his role as a senior political analyst at NBC and MSNBC.

"During this period, I did pursue relationships with women that I worked with, including some junior to me," Halperin told CNN. "I now understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain. For that, I am deeply sorry and I apologize. Under the circumstances, I'm going to take a step back from my day-to-day work while I properly deal with this situation.

COMMENT:   Okay, fair enough.  He admits to what he did.  The situation seems to have been handled well.  Too bad.  Although I usually don't agree with Halperin, he's a knowledgeable man. 

October 26, 2017       Permalink

VIRGINIA VOTE – AT 10:47 A.M. ET:  Virginia goes to the polls on November 7th to elect a new governor, in one of the few off-year gubernatorial elections.  The state is currently governed by Democrat Terry McAuliffe, best known as a Clinton loyalist and operative.

In recent years Virginia, once solidly Republican, has become more of a purple state, thanks in marge measure to the liberal counties, filled with government workers, in the northern part of the state, just outside Washington, D.C.

The odds are that the governor's office will remain in Democratic hands, with the Dems possibly picking up some seats in the legislature.  But the GOP is putting up a terrific fight.  From RealClearPolitics: 

Not for Lovers: With less than two weeks left till voters go to the polls, the Virginia gubernatorial election has turned into an all-out brawl, with Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie recently trading below-the-belt campaign punches. Adding to the chaos, Wednesday evening Hampton University released a new poll showing Gillespie ahead, 41 percent to 33 percent, with a whopping 27 percent undecided. The eight-point advantage for Gillespie is at odds with other recent surveys, and Northam currently maintains a 3.9 percentage point lead in the latest RealClearPolitics poll average.

COMMENT:  If Gillespie can pull it out, it would be an earthquake,  If Dems retain control, it won't be big news. 

Virginia went for Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, by about five points.

October 26,  2017     Permalink

OCTOBER 25,  2017

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

VISITORS – FROM BBC:   At least 5,600 supporters of so-called Islamic State (IS) have returned to their home countries as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria, a new report says.  The Soufan Center, a US-based think tank, says 33 states have reported arrivals in the past two years.  The figure includes half of the estimated 850 people who left the UK.  The report says the returnees - most of whom are imprisoned or disappear from view - will continue to present a security challenge for years to come.   At least, under Trump, this is being taken more seriously.  And you can take it seriously, at the risk of being called a racist.

DEEP THINKING IN UNIVERSITIES – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   A Christian student leader is demanding an apology after a poster distributed by Kent State University asked if stating “You need Jesus“ could qualify as hate speech.  The public university’s Center for Student Involvement created and circulated the poster on Twitter last week. It was designed to promote an event on free speech issues as part of Kent State’s KENTTalks, which are intended to “provide a safe place for discussions and transformational experiences for our student body” and promote “civil discourse.”  Silhouetted activists on the posters hold a range of placards with messages, overlaid with the rhetorical question “free speech or hate speech?” Alongside provocative expressions including “No More Gays,” “Women Need To Serve Their Man” and “Build a Wall,” the fourth placard bears a nonviolent, basic expression of the Christian faith: “You need Jesus.”  One of the great myths is that universities are places of great intellect and thought.  Not always, my friend.  Maybe sometimes.  A little.

TALK ABOUT MISPLACED PRIORITIES – FROM USA TODAY:   Kellogg's will be redesigning Corn Pops cereal boxes after a complaint about racially insensitive art on the packaging.  The Battle Creek, Michigan-based cereal and snack maker said on Twitter Wednesday it will replace the cover drawing of cartoon characters shaped like corn kernels populating a shopping mall. The corn pop characters are shown shopping, playing in an arcade or frolicked in a fountain. One skateboards down an escalator.  What struck Saladin Ahmed was that a single brown corn pop was working as a janitor operating a floor waxer. Ahmed, current writer of Marvel Comics' Black Bolt series and author of 2012 fantasy novel Throne of the Crescent Moon, took to Twitter on Tuesday to ask, "Why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor?  This is teaching kids racism."  Okay, change the cereal box, but it won't save a single black life in Chicago.  Poor sense of priority.

October 25,  2017     Permalink

THE REAL POLITICS OF HATE – AT 1:47 P.M. ET:  And, naturally, the story deals with a college campus, a very unsafe place for many students today.  From Fox:   

The leader of a College Republican group in New York City said he felt like there was "a target on my safety" after an Antifa group distributed pictures and personal information about all of the group's members, imploring opponents to let them know "what you think."

The flyers – spread online and littered around the Columbia University campus as early as Friday, ahead of an event with right-leaning political blogger Michael Cernovich – identified the board members of the Columbia University College Republicans student group.

“It’s crazy,” Ari Boosalis, CUCR president, told Fox News on Tuesday. “It put a target on my safety.”

A financial economics student at Columbia, Boosalis said the “doxing” – a practice of publishing personal information online, typically with a malicious intent – is just the latest string of harassment he has encountered this semester since it was announced that several right-leaning speakers had been invited to campus.

The harassment came via Twitter and LinkedIn and not only targeted Boosalis but also the other members of the CUCR board.

“I am the face of the [CUCR] and I can take whatever they say,” he said. “You can slander me, you can attack me all you want, and I can take it.”

He added: “But it’s going to other board members in smaller roles. That’s different level.”

COMMENT:  This is the classic "chilling effect."  How many students will want to get involved with College Republicans if they risk "doxing."  It's the same as the old McCarthyite technique of "naming names," except this involves real physical threats.

But in the eyes of the mainstream media, the real threats are coming from the right.  They are not.

October 25, 2017       Permalink

IN THE REAL WORLD – AT 12:55 P.M. ET:   The president is going to Asia for conferences.  The 900-pound gorilla in the room will be North Korea.  This president, unlike the last one, is bringing with him real military power, a demonstration of force signaling to the Koreans that we have the strength to back up our words.  From Fox: 

A third U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group entered the western Pacific, the Navy announced Wednesday, just days ahead of President Donald Trump’s first trip to Asia next month.

The USS Nimitz joined the Roosevelt and Reagan in the region. The Nimitz announcement came a day after the Roosevelt entered the western Pacific.

The deployments came as U.S., Japanese and South Korean maritime forces were conducting a trilateral exercise aimed at improving ballistic missile defenses.

On Monday, Japan's defense minister asserted that North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities had grown to an "unprecedented, critical and imminent" level, requiring "different responses." 

The minister, Itsunori Onodera, said the rising threat compels his country to endorse the U.S. view that "all options" must be considered, which Trump has said includes possible military action.

Japan was alarmed by North Korea twice launching ballistic missiles over Japanese territory, in August and in September.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis slammed Pyongyang for defying U.N. Security Council resolutions against its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

"North Korea's provocations threaten regional and global security," he said.

COMMENT:  President Trump is left with a problem caused by his predecessors, who simply kicked the can down the road when North Korea ignored agreements and built its nuclear and missile programs.  At some point we will have to take effective action to terminate those programs, or accept unstable North Korea as a nuclear power.

October 25, 2017       Permalink

HOW BIG A DEAL IS THIS? – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  It's huge, as they say, if the Republicans know how to handle it.  And it's huge if our attorney general gets on the stick and pursues it.  From The Washington Post (strangely) via the Seattle Times: 

The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) helped fund research that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about Donald Trump’s connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said.

Marc Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington, D.C., firm, to conduct the research. Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community.

Elias and his law firm, Seattle-based Perkins Coie, retained the firm in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’ research into Trump was funded by a still unknown Republican client during the GOP primary.

The Clinton campaign and the DNC, through the law firm, continued to fund Fusion GPS’ research through the end of October 2016, days before Election Day.

COMMENT:  This is only the surface.  Only one of the Democratic scandals to bubble up in recent days.  Another deals with the fact that Russia controls 20% of American uranium because of a deal made during the Obama administration.  And those who pushed for the deal made massive contributions to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

Watch carefully over the coming weeks to see if these scandals go front and center, or whether they're buried.  The Republicans have the ball.  We're looking at their offense.

October 25,  2017     Permalink