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OCTOBER 27,  2017

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

REAL CLASS – FROM NEWSBUSTERS:    The New York Times carried a column last weekend by Maureen Dowd where Jimmy Carter shocked the liberals by saying “I think the media have been harder on Trump than any other president certainly that I've known about...I think they feel free to claim that Trump is mentally deranged and everything else without hesitation.”  Times columnist Thomas Friedman took it to a new level on Wednesday's Charlie Rose on PBS. Trump isn't mentally ill...he's a brain-eating disease.  Such style, such elegance.  These are the people who consider themselves superior to we mere citizens.  Well-dressed trash talkers.

THE PAIN, THE STRESS – FROM POWERLINE:   Student anxiety and hostility at public high schools have worsened since Donald Trump became president, according to a study. More than half of the 1,535 teachers who responded to a survey claimed to see more students than ever with “high levels of stress and anxiety” between January and May of this year.  The study was conducted by UCLA’s director of the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access. The title of the institute suggests to me that the study was looking for the result it found.  Indeed, there are some obvious problems with the study. First, more than 10,000 teachers were invited to respond. Only about 15 percent did. One suspects that the teachers who responded were among the most likely to tell the researchers that student stress is rising under Trump. One suspects that many of these teachers, if asked, would report that mildew in their classroom has increased since Trump became president.  Yes, I've heard that a major mildew crisis is about to be declared by Hillary Clinton and CNN.

LAND OF THE FREE? – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   The Supreme Court’s 1969 Tinker decision is supposed to protect the constitutional rights of children in public schools, particularly peaceful political expression.  Several Senate Democrats couldn’t care less. They are demanding that the Department of Education illegally squelch children’s political speech they dislike.  Education Week reports that eight members wrote a letter to Secretary Betsy DeVos* Wednesday asking her to “outline its plan to address the rise of discrimination and harassment in our schools” that they blame on her boss, President Donald Trump.  The signatories all serve on the Senate committee that handles education, including Ranking Member Patty Murray, and they trace the alleged spike in harassment (contradicted by Education Week itself) to the election of Trump.  The best thing the Republican Party has going for it is the Democratic Party.Dysfunction and madness, together again.

October 27, 2017       Permalink  

TERRIFIC – AT 12:21 P.M. ET:   The economy is starting to roar under Trump.  A tax cut will make things even better.  But the news is already good.  From Reuters: 

The U.S. economy unexpectedly maintained a brisk pace of growth in the third quarter as an increase in inventory investment and a smaller trade deficit offset a hurricane-related slowdown in consumer spending and a decline in construction.

Gross domestic product increased at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the July-September period after expanding at a 3.1 percent pace in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

The department said while it was impossible to estimate the overall impact of hurricanes Harvey and Irma on third-quarter GDP, preliminary estimates showed that the back-to-back storms had caused losses of $121.0 billion in privately owned fixed assets and $10.4 billion in government-owned fixed assets.

Harvey and Irma struck parts of Texas and Florida in late August and early September. Hurricane Maria, which destroyed infrastructure in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, had no impact on third-quarter GDP growth as the islands are not included in the United State's national accounts.

COMMENT:  There are still some soft spots, and there's always a risk of slippage, but there is clearly economic optimism in the country, and the president has a right to take some of the credit. 

October 27, 2017       Permalink

WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:   The first anniversary of President Trump's election is coming up.  The fanatical anti-Trumpers plan a commemoration.  Piers Morgan at the Daily Mail has a vivid interpretation of what this will look like: 

In two weeks it is the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s astonishing US election victory.

To ‘celebrate’, thousands of Trump-hating liberals in cities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia are planning a day of protest in which they will go outside, stare upwards and shout their little heads off in rage.

I’m not joking.

The planned event is actually titled on Facebook: ‘Scream helplessly at the sky on the anniversary of the election’.

Organizer Johanna Schulman told Newsweek: ‘This administration has attacked everything about what it means to be an American. Who wouldn’t feel helpless every day?’

Hmmm.

Well, let me try to explain, Johanna, if you haven’t already started preemptively screaming.

There are tens of millions of Americans right now who don’t feel helpless at all. In fact, they’ve never felt happier that they’ve finally got a guy in the White House who THEY believe stands up for THEM.

They don’t share YOUR view of what it means to be an American.

They share Trump’s view, because it’s THEIR view.

That’s why he was elected President, and that’s why I am beginning to think he will be comfortably re-elected in 2020.

COMMENTS:  I was not a Trump supporter, but I think Piers has it generally right.  I don't think we'll know for quite a time whether Trump can pull off an easy re-election, but I do think he has far more backing than current polls indicate.  He did during last year's election campaign, after all.

October 27, 2017       Permalink

MAJOR EMPLOYMENT NEWS – AT 9:54 A.M. ET:  As a public service, we try to keep readers informed of important self-improvement opportunities.  From reason.com: 

At Oberlin College, students interested in social justice can apply for a job teaching their classmates about microaggressions and the nature of oppression.

The position is called "Social Justice Education Facilitator," pays $8.15 an hour, and requires "knowledge on the various forms of oppression, including but not limited to: race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, citizenship, etc.," according to the listing on the college's website. Students chosen for the job will be expected to help run the Multicultural Resource Center's various training modules: Power, Privilege, and Oppression Training; Beyond the Binary Training; and Microaggression Training.

Note that the center is not an academic department. It's an administrative office run by an assistant dean of students. Its website makes the place seem explicitly ideological and highly partisan.

That difference matters. It's one thing for a professor within a classroom setting to teach students about the nature of oppression, or to discuss how certain people have been marginalized because of their gender or skin color. It's quite another for the college to train—and pay!—students to serve as activists outside of the classroom.

The theory behind microaggressions—unintentional insults based on race, sex, or another protected status—is woefully inadequate and lacks scientific rigor. Scott Lilienfeld, a clinical psychologist at Emory University, took a close look at the core assumptions that undergird the academic understanding of microaggressions and concluded that there should be a "moratorium on microaggression training."

"There is insufficient justification for concluding that the potential benefits of microaggression training programs outweigh their potential risks, including a substantial increase in the number of false-positive identifications of statements as microaggressions," he wrote. I am going to take a wild guess and say that students who sign up to be Social Education Facilitators won't be learning about Lilienfeld's work, or discussing whether the microaggression concept has merit.

COMMENT:  Gee, I've got a radical idea:  How about some training in physics, chemistry, math and engineering – things the country needs?  Anyone interested?

Are you sending a kid to Oberlin?  Better provide an inheritance.

October 27,  2017     Permalink

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 large 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