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OCTOBER 12,  2018

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

MAJOR SOCIAL NEWS – FROM FOX:  A coven of New York witches is holding a public ceremony next week to cast a hex on Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in what Tucker Carlson described as the latest left-wing effort to stop his rise to the high court.  "Liberal Sherpa" Cathy Areu said the hexing will take place in Brooklyn, and that it will include an optional $10 donation to take part.  Carlson said part of the proceeds will go to Planned Parenthood, to "fund their own human sacrifice rituals."  He said that it is appropriate that the Democratic Party, which "conducts witch hunts" also "conducts witchcraft."  Areu said the coven previously cast three hexes on President Trump and considered their efforts successful in partially stymieing his administration's goals.  When it comes to witches, the Democratic Party is fully staffed.

WELCOME THE CONVERT – FROM FOX:  A former Never-Trumper says supporting the president is the "responsible choice" following Democrats' "abominable" behavior throughout the Supreme Court confirmation process.  In an op-ed titled "I Was A Never Trumper Until Democrats Went Gonzo On Kavanaugh. Now, Hand Me That Red Hat," Nathanael Blake, senior contributor for The Federalist, wrote that the Democratic Party and its media allies are controlled by people who view conservatives not as political opponents to be voted down, but as enemies to be "personally destroyed."  "This is about self-defense. And that is why I’ve gone from “Meh” to “MAGA!" Blake wrote.  He's not the only one.  Support for the president is firming up on the right.  We need unity going into the 2020 presidential election.

THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM – FROM DAILY CALLER:    The Metropolitan Republican Club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side was vandalized Thursday night with broken windows, spray-painted anarchy signs, and a threatening message that the “attack is merely a beginning.”  The building is the headquarters of the Manhattan Republican Party and the New York City regional office for the New York Republican Party.  "Tonight, we put the Republican Party on notice, in defiance to the policy of mass misery they have championed.  The U.S. government has established concentration camps around the country for Latino people, shamelessly murdering black people, and continues its war machine that has slaughtered Muslim people with impunity for decades. The so-called 'Land of the Free' leads the world in incarceration rates per capita, all the while profiteering in the new plantation within the prison walls.  While these atrocities persist unabated the Metropolitan Republican Club chose to invite a hipster fascist clown to dance for them, content to revel in their treachery against humanity. The Republican Party joined by their spineless partners in crime, the Democrats, institute a policy of domestic and foreign terror felt the world over.  Our attack is merely a beginning. We are not passive, we are not civil, and we will not apologize. Those of good conscience and clear mind know this state of oppression cannot remain. The US fascist political system is one of the most savage institutions in history and we will combat it relentlessly until all are free of American barbarism."  Another brilliant addition to the national dialogue. 

October 12, 2018       Permalink

GOP COMES OUT FIGHTING – AT 4:18 P.M. ET:  The campaign leaders are on the ball.  Their new ad is terrific.  I hope they're this good at voter turnout.  From Fox:

Liberal protesters – egged on by Democratic politicians – are openly embracing a more confrontational and aggressive approach, banging on the doors of the Supreme Court, confronting lawmakers outside their offices and chasing GOP officials out of restaurants.

And Republicans are quickly seizing on that spectacle to hammer a new midterm message, decrying the “mob” behavior and warning that Democrats would bring that mentality into the majority should they prevail in November's election.

"The radical Democrats have turned into an angry mob," President Trump said at one of many recent campaign-style rallies, a message he's repeated over and over.

The Republican National Committee released a video Thursday calling the left “an unhinged mob,” showing recent comments from Democrats encouraging protests.

The video includes footage of former Attorney General Eric Holder saying, “When they go low, we kick them." It shows California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters saying, “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

It shows House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi saying, "I just don't even know why there aren't uprisings all over the country.” It shows New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker telling protesters to “get up in the face of some congresspeople.” And it shows Hillary Clinton, in a television interview this week, saying, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.”

Over those comments is footage of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife Heidi being recently hounded out of a restaurant by protesters peppering the senator with questions about Kavanaugh and chanting “we believe survivors.” It also showed footage of protesters banging on the doors of the Supreme Court.

But Democrats -- as well as some sympathetic figures in the media -- are defending the protests and arguing the “mob” label is unfair, even though the term was regularly used by critics to refer to the Tea Party protests during the Obama administration.

COMMENT:  The story contains the video.  Take a look.

October 12, 2018       Permalink

COULD THIS BE TRUE? – AT 2:08 P.M. ET:   Korea has been off the front page, but it's still, and will continue to be, one of the most critical international stories.  A story is now running that seems to inspire optimism.  We'll report it, with a warning that we cannot verify how solid it is, and that similar stories in the past have fallen short.  From Daily Mail: 

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un will to get rid of all the rogue state's nuclear weapons, according to an agreement at a summit today.

The hermit kingdom will abolish all nuclear materials and facilities to achieve 'complete' denuclearisation, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has claimed after a meeting earlier today.  

Kim and US President Donald Trump pledged to work towards denuclearisation at their landmark June summit in Singapore, but the agreement was short on specific details. 

Negotiations have made little headway since, with the North refusing to declare its nuclear weapons and facilities or agree to a concrete timeline.

Moon emphasised Kim's resolve to abandon nuclear and missile programmes, that the North pursued in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, and focus on the economy if regime security is guaranteed.

After his third summit in Pyongyang, Moon said the North was ready to invite international experts to watch the dismantling of a key missile site and would close the main Yongbyon nuclear complex if Washington took reciprocal actions.

North Korea could have as many as 60 nuclear weapons, the South said after a summit earlier this month.

According to South Korean government reports, North is believed to have produced 110 lbs of weaponised plutonium - enough for at least eight bombs. 

COMMENT:  The key phrase is, "...if Washington took reciprocal actions."  What are those actions?  They're not defined, at least not in this story. 

Mike Pompeo was in North Korea just days ago, and reported that negotiations were making progress.  There are general plans for another summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.

We can have confidence that President Trump, unlike some of his predecessors, won't make a deal just to have a deal.  We can't know whether he'll succeed, but I'm glad the effort is being made with Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, and not a marshmallow.

October 12, 2018        Permalink

THIS IS WHAT IT'S ABOUT – AT 12:42 P.M. ET:  President Trump, working through a Republican Senate, is remaking the federal judiciary, in our direction.  From The Politico: 

Senate Democrats accepted an offer Thursday from Senate Republicans to confirm 15 lifetime federal judges in exchange for the ability to go into recess through the midterms, allowing endangered Democrats to campaign.

The calculation by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his caucus was simple: That Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would be able to confirm roughly 15 judges if he kept the Senate in session for the next few weeks anyway. So Democrats OK’d an offer to confirm three Circuit Court judges and 12 District Court judges as the price to pay to go home for election season.

Under Senate rules, even if Democrats fought the nominees tooth and nail and forced the Senate to burn 30 hours of debate between each one, McConnell would have gotten them all confirmed by Nov. 1. Democrats could have conceivably left a skeleton crew of senators in Washington to force the GOP to take roll call votes on the judges over the next few weeks, although that tactic is not typically employed by the minority.

Some liberal activists are urging Democrats to show more fight after Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court; Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos even said that Democrats “need a new Senate leader” after the agreement was struck. But senators had to weigh that dynamic along with the approaching midterms and the brutal Senate map. And with a half-dozen Democrats facing serious challenges in Senate races, it made more sense to make what Democrats said was a reasonable deal with McConnell so that they could make a serious run at saving endangered senators.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) deadpanned that he was “tickled” pink that he could go home and campaign in Montana, where his race against Matt Rosendale is tightening.

“If we stayed here for two or three weeks, we’d probably have done the same thing,” Tester said. “I think it’s good.”

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told the caucus that she opposed the deal, the lone Democrat to voice displeasure, according to a person briefed on the meeting.

COMMENT:   Control of the Senate is absolutely vital to the conservative program, to reverse the liberal tilt of the judiciary.

Oh, by the way, please note the profoundly shallow Daily Kos call for a new Senate minority leader.  Frankly, this was expected, and the call will get louder.  Chuck Schumer, with all his faults, is a grown-up, not the kind of person the radicals want.  He is also ethnically and genderly out of touch with the party trend.  Expect a challenge to his leadership.  He still, though, commands much loyalty from the traditional Dems, and an attempt to dump him will mean a big, ugly fight.  If he loses, it might be to Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris, both of whom have presidential ambitions.

October 12,  2018     Permalink

OCTOBER 11,  2018

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

IT SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY – FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:   Betty Grissom, the widow of the astronaut Virgil Grissom, whose death in a launchpad fire in 1967 led her to sue a NASA contractor, died on Saturday at her home in Houston. She was 91.  Her son Mark confirmed the death. He said neighbors had noticed that Ms. Grissom had picked up her morning newspaper but not her afternoon mail and went to check on her. She had died while sorting the laundry, he said, and the cause of death was not known.  Virgil Grissom, known as Gus, one of the seven original Mercury astronauts immortalized by Tom Wolfe in his book “The Right Stuff,” was the second American in space, after Alan Shepard. He was also the command pilot of Apollo 1, which was intended to test the Apollo capsule for flights to the moon.But during a routine test at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an electrical fire swept through the command module, killing all three astronauts aboard — Mr. Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee.  It was the first fatal accident in the history of the United States space program. Mr. Grissom was 40.  I remember when the space program symbolized America.  Every launch was watched by tens of millions.  Maybe we can get that spirit back.

MIRACLE IN TENNESSEE – In the hot Tennessee Senate race, a New York Times/Siena poll published hours ago shows Republican Marsha Blackburn opening up a 14-point lead over Democrat Phil Bredesen.  This is larger than previous leads, and we always caution that polls are a flash in time, but it shows the trend in the race.  Bredesen's cause wasn't helped when staff members were caught on tape admitting that the candidate's claim that he was pro-Kavanaugh was a fake.   The candidates are contesting a Republican seat held by the retiring Bob Corker.  We will welcome Marsha Blackburn to the US Senate.

THE SHOE IS ON THE OTHER FOOT – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  Professor C. Christine Fair is no stranger to attention-grabbing headlines. She told a Trump-supporting colleague to “go to hell” and called German police officers “German Nazi police.”  Most recently, she was placed on research leave after posting a controversial tweet that called for the “miserable deaths” and castrations of Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Afterward, she claimed the tweet was an “experiment.”  Now Georgetown University may have to answer for her to the Department of Education.  Last week the National Coalition for Men filed a Title IX complaint against Georgetown that included Fair’s conduct and requested that Georgetown fire her.  Fair blasted the complaint in an email to The College Fix. She called it “politically-motivated rubbish initiated by persons who have on [sic] familiarity with me or my students. It is, in short, a stunt.”  NCFM was already contemplating a complaint against Georgetown but Fair’s tweet was “the catalyst,” President Harry Crouch told The Fix in an email.   We'll follow this.  Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has done a fine job in cleaning up the Title IX office (Office of Civil Rights) in the Department of Education.   We hope the newly reformed office takes this complaint seriously.

October 11, 2018       Permalink

IT'S THE ECONOMY – AT 11:31 P.M. ET:  Please note that the stock market has taken a beating this week.  Ordinarily, this would be just a correction, maybe even one that is long overdue.  However, in an election year a drop like this could have political impact.

Please remember that an economic jolt during the 2008 presidential election campaign helped put Barack Obama in the White House.  John McCain foolishly suspended his campaign to return to Washington to help solve the economic problem, which he didn't do, leaving Obama unchallenged.  Obama probably would have won anyway, but McCain's gift certainly helped him.

I've always wondered about that economic convulsion.  The timing seemed just a bit too convenient for the Dems.  But I don't believe in conspiracy theories, although I do believe in conspiracies. 

Now, if the downturn in the market continues, we could be faced with another backlash against the party in power.  Convenient timing, ay?  Just sayin'.

October 11, 2018      Permalink

ARE THE NEEDLES MOVING IN KEY RACES? – AT 10:15 A.M. ET:   It appears they are.  Again, we caution that polls are temporary, but some key numbers are showing Republican progress.

In today's RealClearPolitics report, Republican incumbent Senator Dean Heller of Nevada has overtaken Dem challenger Jackie Rosen, by two points.  Rosen had been modestly ahead until now.  Nevada is critical.  We cannot lose that seat.

Also in today's report, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, in Quinnipiac, is nine points ahead of Dem "rising star" Beto O'Rourke, whose star apparently needs some shining.  Beto, whose real name isn't even Beto, is being exposed as the pretender he is.  We hope Ted can soon put this one away.

And in critical Arizona, our heroine, Martha McSally, has opened a six-point lead in one poll against the queen of the whackjobs, Kyrsten Sinema.  Martha was the first American woman to fly in combat.  Sinema is now exposed as having a radical past, giving aid and comfort to supporters of terrorism, and ridiculing the 9-11 attacks.  She claims to be a moderate.  The Dems have a lot of election-year "moderates" who go to Washington and put up their secret picture of Lenin.  Go Martha!

Two races to watch:  Indiana.  The incumbent Dem "moderate" Senator Joe Donnelly is running as a Trump-loving Democrat, but he voted against Judge Kavanaugh.  He'd been slightly ahead of GOP solid guy Mike Braun before that vote.  We're awaiting new polls.

And Montana.  Dem incumbent Senator Jon Tester, who is kind of a weird independent Democrat, voted against Judge Kavanaugh, but did so on privacy issues.  GOP opponent Matt Rosendale, has been running behind Tester, but the race seems to be tightening.  We await new polls. 

Remember that the election is almost four weeks away.  Any event can change votes, and the Dems must certainly be planning an October surprise.  No champagne yet.

October 11, 2018       Permalink   

THE KAVANAUGH EFFECT – AT 9:45 A.M. ET:  Is it real?  Is there a Kavanaugh effect in the electorate?  We caution that polls are snapshots in time.  We may not see the same numbers on election day.  But there appears to be a Kavanaugh effect, and it is helping our side.  From Rasmussen: 

Republicans are madder about the Kavanaugh controversy than Democrats are and more determined to vote in the upcoming elections because of it.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 54% of all Likely U.S. Voters say they are more likely to vote in the upcoming midterm elections because of the controversy surrounding President Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Only nine percent (9%) say they are less likely to vote. Thirty-four percent (34%) say the controversy will have no impact on their vote.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Republicans are more likely to vote because of the Kavanaugh controversy, compared to 54% of Democrats and 46% of voters not affiliated with either major political party. 

Sixty-two percent (62%) of all voters are angry about the U.S. Senate’s treatment of Kavanaugh, with 42% who are Very Angry. Fifty-six percent (56%) are angry about how the Senate treated Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, including 35% who are Very Angry.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Republicans are Very Angry about the Senate’s treatment of Kavanaugh, a view shared by 30% of Democrats and 34% of unaffiliated voters. By comparison, fewer Democrats (48%) are Very Angry about the Senate’s treatment of Ford; 28% of GOP voters and 30% of unaffiliateds agree.

Democrats’ five-point lead on the weekly Rasmussen Reports Generic Congressional Ballot has vanished. The two parties are now tied with less than a month until Election Day. We'll be watching to see if this is the beginning of a post-Kavanaugh trend.

COMMENT:  Now is the time for political skill, led by President Trump and his uncanny way of speaking directly to people, a skill unmatched by any national Democrat.

The GOP and the Republican National Committee must be on all burners.  And, most important of all, it must get out the Republican vote.  Drag 'em to the polls.  Give rides.  Hijack buses.  Anything.  The only poll that counts is the one on election day.

October 11,  2018     Permalink