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OCTOBER 27,  2018

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

AFTERMATH – Another sad day for America. But one thing I did notice might give us a bit of hope.  At times like these some of our news organizations resort to vulgar, tasteless Trump bashing, trying to pin some blame for every tragedy on the president.  I didn't see much of that today.  Maybe the magnitude of the occasion led to more subdued coverage.  Or, we hope, maybe some journalists are starting to understand that they, too, bear responsibility for the national tone.  Most of the coverage was pretty decent.  Some of the weekend staffs performed better than their weekday counterparts.  Overall, I think the tragedy was professionally handled.

OVERLOOKED – Overlooked in this week's tumult was a remarkable meeting at the White House between President Trump and young black leaders.  From Fox:   Chants of ‘We love Trump, U-S-A!’ echoed across the East Room of the White House before, during, and after President Donald Trump’s address to hundreds of young black conservatives.  The President’s address was part of the Young Black Leaders Summit (YBLS), a four-day conference focused on millennial-aged, conservative black Americans. The student-activist group, Turning Point USA, is hosting the event.  Brandon Tatum is Director of Urban Engagement at Turning Point USA, and he told Fox News that the YBLS is symbolic for black voters. “YBLS is important because it gives an example to this country that black voters are not monoliths and think for ourselves,” said Tatum.  They certainly do, and President Trump is the first Republican president to reach out seriously to them.  The president has made important progress in attracting Hispanic support.  The black community is next.

THE CARAVAN MOVES ON – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Thousands of Central American migrants vowed Saturday to continue pressing north to the US border after many of them rejected an offer of refugee status from Mexico.  Mexican officials had promised shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs to members of the Central American caravan who would ditch their plans to reach the States. The offer came as the Trump administration moved to send 800 extra troops to the border to help keep the migrants from entering the US.  Authorities said some 1,700 migrants accepted Mexico’s offer, but thousands more took a pass.  “Our goal is not to remain in Mexico,” 58-year-old Oscar Sosa, a migrant from Honduras, told the Associated Press. “Our goal is to make it to the [United States]. We want passage, that’s all.”  Okay, we're sympathetic, but you must follow American laws and enter the country legally.  This is building to a serious confrontation.

October 27,  2018     Permalink

WHAT WE KNOW – AT 5:56 P.M. ET:  The Pittsburgh shootings dominated today's news.  Here is what we know so far.  From Fox:

A gunman opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday morning, killing 11 people and injuring six others, including four police officers, before being taken into custody, authorities said.

Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said police were dispatched to Tree of Life Synagogue at 9:55 a.m. after receiving calls that there was an active-shooter situation at the scene, in the city's predominantly Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

In all, he confirmed, 11 people died -- none of them children. As for the injury tally, he said it did not include the shooter, who was taken to the hospital after being taken into custody.

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect in the shooting as Robert Bowers, 48.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center officials said a 61-year-old woman was among the injured. Her injuries were described as “extremity soft tissue injuries that required cleaning in the operating room.” She is said to be in good condition and recovering.

Another victim was ID'd as a 70-year-old male with gunshot wounds to his torso “involving major organs in his abdomen.” He was undergoing his second operation and in critical condition, hospital officials said.

Police Chief Scott Schubert said that two police officers were hit during initial contact with the shooter and that two SWAT team members were also struck “during an engagement inside the building.” He confirmed that all four law enforcement officials are in stable condition.

COMMENT:  We know almost nothing about the alleged shooter at this hour, except that he has posted anti-Semitic messages on social media.  We don't know if he has a family, or is politically active.  he is believed to have acted alone.

October 27, 2018       Permalink

SHOOTING – AT 12:16 P.M. ET:  There has been a multiple-death shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.   Preliminary reports say that 12 individuals in the synagogue were shot, with at least four known dead.  In addition, three police officers rushing to the scene were shot.

The gunman, assuming there was only one, is in custody.  We have no idea who he or she is.  As in all cases like this, we urge readers not to jump to conclusions.  This could of course be a terrorist attack, but it could also be a personal grudge. 

Nearby Carnegie-Mellon University is on lockdown.  Even in New York, police are sending units to synagogues in an abundance of caution.

Both Fox and CNN got on the story early, using weekend anchors, and, in Fox's case, the wonderful financial reporter, Charles Payne.  All did a fine job.  But it doesn't take long for the journalistic left to swing into action.  On CNN, a personality noted a recent report that anti-Semitic crimes had increased since President Trump took office.  (In fact, anti-Semitic activity, most from the political left, has been increasing for years.)  And a reporter just asked the president, who is leaving Washington on a trip, whether this incident showed the need for more gun laws.  Nothing ever changes, does it?

UPDATE:  Press reports now say that the shooter shouted "All Jews must die" as he went about his killing.  The incident is being treated as some kind of hate crime.  We don't know if this was an act of bigotry, or related to the Mideast situation.  Nor do we know the ethnicity of the alleged shooter.

October 27,  2018     Permalink

OCTOBER 26,  2018

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

VOTERS AGREE – THE PRESS IS LEFTISH – FROM RASMUSSEN:   Voters think the media is trying to help Democrats in the upcoming elections which helps explain why Democratic voters are much bigger fans of election news coverage than others are.  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 45% of all Likely U.S. Voters think that when most reporters write about a congressional race, they are trying to help the Democratic candidate. Just 11% think they’re trying to help the Republican instead. Only 35% think most reporters are just trying to report the news in an unbiased manner.  The people always figure it out, don't they?  Mainstream journalism is falling apart.

PATHETIC – FROM TOWNHALL:   Florida Democrat Andrew Gillum slammed Republican opponent Ron DeSantis Thursday for repeatedly calling him by his first name during two gubernatorial debates.  “I met him for the first time the other night and then all of a sudden, without invitation, he was calling me only as Andrew,” the Tallahassee mayor told college students at the historically black Florida Memorial University. “Between the two of us, he quit his job in Congress, I’m a sitting mayor, and he had the nerve to address me only as Andrew?” Gillum said. “I wanted to correct him, y’all, but I didn’t want to be petty. So, we just we pushed all the way through.”  The New York Times reported in 2012 how difficult it can be for candidates to decide what to call each other during debates. While most tend to err on the side of formality, referring to one's opponent by their first name is not all that uncommon.  This man is some piece of work.  He wants to be Florida's next governor, and may well be, but he's hobbled by corruption concerns and by an extreme leftist past.  And this is what he's worried about?  In America, we can go up to the president and call him by his first name, and no one will arrest us.  Perhaps Mr. Gillum would prefer Your Majesty. 

THE LATEST FROM TRENDY HBO – YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP – FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:  After the second season of The Deuce piloted the practice, HBO decided to staff every one of its television shows and films that have intimate scenes going forward with an intimacy coordinator.  The network announced its decision via its public relations Twitter account on Thursday after Rolling Stone published a story about the cable network's work with Deuce intimacy coordinator Alicia Rodis. "As reported in @RollingStone, all @HBO programs with intimate scenes will be staffed by an intimacy coordinator," HBO PR tweeted.  Since working on The Deuce, a series about the burgeoning porn industry in New York in the 1970s, Rodis has worked on intimate scenes on Crashing, the upcoming Watchmen series and the Deadwood movie, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Rodis is additionally training new intimacy coordinators to be on hand during the production of the upcoming crime drama Jett and Drake executive-produced high school series Euphoria.  Look, I don't want to seem un-hip, but what, precisely, does an intimacy coordinator do?  What does she coordinate?  I can just see a college major in intimacy coordination, with a multicultural faculty to make sure that all cultural traditions are respected.  And I can see an Emmy for best achievement in intimacy coordination.  During the golden age of film we had a production code, and we did just fine. 

October 26, 2018       Permalink 

ANOTHER GOOD ECONOMIC REPORT – AT 4:08 P.M. ET:   The economy keeps up a strong pace, and that has to be good news for Republicans in this election year.  From USA Today:

Healthy consumer spending and business stockpiling helped keep the U.S. economy on a roll in the third quarter, more than offsetting the negative effects of President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war.

The nation’s gross domestic product – the value of all goods and services produced in the economy – increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.5 percent in the July- September period, the Commerce Department said Friday. That followed a 4.2 percent gain in the second quarter and marks the first time growth has topped 3 percent for two consecutive quarters since early 2015. Economists expected a 3.3 percent increase in output.

The economy has continued to benefit from federal tax cuts and spending increases, along with a 3.7 percent unemployment rate that marks a 50-year low and is nudging worker wages and buying power higher. So far, those forces have outweighed the fallout from U.S. trade standoffs with China and other countries.

COMMENT:  Politically, this should help the president's party in two weeks, but the assistance may not be that great.  People get used to a strong economy, and the classic question asked is, "What have you done for me lately?" 

However, Trump's personal numbers continue to rise.  They are higher than Obama's, a good if early sign for the 2020 presidential race.

October 26, 2018       Permalink

I'D BE CAREFUL ABOUT THIS – AT 3:26 P.M. ET:   In every election cycle we have the "New Jersey story," and it is always the same:  Will this be the year that New Jersey, one of the bluest of the blue states, surprises us and goes red?  And then New Jersey votes blue.  But this year something is intriguing is happening late in the race.  From Fox: 

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez's once-comfortable lead over Republican Bob Hugin has narrowed in recent polls amid withering attacks over his ethics challenges and personal controversies, and now one rating outfit has shifted the Senate race into the "toss-up" column.

Cook Political Report, reflecting how unexpectedly competitive the contest has become, announced Friday it is moving the race from "lean Democratic" to "toss-up."

“The contest isn’t about anything else but Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his ethics problems,” Cook Political Report’s Jennifer Duffy wrote, noting wealthy pharmaceutical exec Hugin has outspent the incumbent by nearly 3-1, with much of that going toward brutal TV ads.

The imbalance, and potential risk for Menendez, has led a major Senate Democratic super PAC to jump in with its own multimillion-dollar ad buys.

COMMENT:  Other polls put the race in the Dem column.  Maybe Cook knows something the others don't know. 

Menendez has an ethics problem.  In New Jersey that's like having the sniffles.  In the end, I think he'll pull it out, unfortunately.

October 26, 2018       Permalink

CAUGHT – AT 1:15 P.M. ET:  By now you all know that authorities have captured a man in Florida and taken him into custody in connection with the bombs sent around the country in the last few days. 

From Fox: 

A male suspect was arrested in Florida on Friday morning in connection with the rash of suspicious packages sent to prominent Democrats nationwide, law enforcement sources confirmed to Fox News.

Multiple sources identified the suspect to Fox News as Cesar Sayoc, 56, a former New Yorker who now lives in Aventura, Florida. Several of the packages went through a U.S. postal facility in Opa-locka, which is less than 10 miles from Aventura. He was arrested at an auto parts store in Plantation.

Sayoc, a registered Republican, has a lengthy criminal history in Florida dating back to 1991. He had been arrested and accused of threatening to use a bomb in 2002 and has also been arrested for felony theft and on drug charges.

Sayoc's white van, which was plastered with stickers of Trump, the presidential seal and other political signage, was seized by authorities and taken to a secure facility. His social media accounts are also full of him attending MAGA rallies.

President Trump applauded the FBI during remarks Friday afternoon, also decrying the use of violence in the political realm. Trump called the packages and the events of the week "despicable".
"We must never allow political violence to take root in America. We cannot let it happen. And I am committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it. And to stop it now."

COMMENT:  The alleged bomber is clearly a fan of President Trump, which is unfortunate.  He has a van covered with Trump stickers and stickers of prominent Trump opponents.  He made no attempt to hide his beliefs.  In fact, he made no attempt to hide. 

However, it should be noted that he has a long criminal history.  He is certainly not typical of Trump supporters.  That criminal history probably led police right to him, as criminals are fingerprinted, and it's possible there were prints on the bombs.  Further, he is known to authorities.

Already, the vulgar CNN is on the air with not-so-subtle hints that President Trump is at least partly to blame for this suspect's activities, despite the fact that the suspect has a long criminal history.

The suspect is being described as white.  In fact, he identifies as Native American, a Seminole.  I'd love to see how that is handled by the politically correct media.

October 26,  2018     Permalink