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LAST SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE FOR 2017– DAY THREE – HELP!

(Our first two days were sluggish.  Our timing – setting this drive as readers were returning from vacations and the Labor Day holiday – may not have been the best.  We hope our readers will respond more strongly today and prove that my doubts are unwarranted.)

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SEPTEMBER 7,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

AND NOW MEXICO – FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:  A powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Mexico early Friday and was felt as far away as Mexico City, reports said.  The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 8 and struck about 60 miles, or 96 kilometers, southwest of Pijijiapan, off the coast of Chiapas State, near the border with Guatemala.  The United States Geological Survey issued a tsunami warning right after the quake hit. The Associated Press reported that the quake was felt in the capital, Mexico City.  “I felt the earthquake in our neighborhood near downtown,” said Joel Petterson, a New York Times employee on vacation in Mexico City. “Our building started swaying about 20 minutes ago, and many people went out into the street.”  That's a powerful earthquake.  We'll be watching the story closely, as Irma makes its way to Florida.  Nature has become this weekend's big story.

SOMETHING ELSE TO KEEP US UP – FROM BLOOMBERG:  Equifax Inc. said its systems were struck by a cyberattack that may have affected about 143 million U.S. customers of the credit reporting agency, shedding light on one of the largest and most intrusive breaches in history.  Intruders accessed names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers, Equifax said in a statement. Credit card numbers for about 209,000 consumers were also accessed, the company said. Equifax shares dropped more than 8 percent in after-hours trading.  "This is clearly a disappointing event for our company, and one that strikes at the heart of who we are and what we do. I apologize to consumers and our business customers for the concern and frustration this causes," Chief Executive Officer Richard Smith said.   We are incredibly vulnerable to this kind of hack, and yet I detect no sense of urgency in the American public.

SHE'S BAAACK...AND WON'T LEAVE US ALONE – FROM POLITICO:   President Donald  Trump may be the only person in politics truly excited about Hillary Clinton’s book tour.
Democratic operatives can’t stand the thought of her picking the scabs of 2016, again — the Bernie Sanders divide, the Jim Comey complaints, the casting blame on Barack Obama for not speaking out more on Russia. Alums of her Brooklyn headquarters who were miserable even when they thought she was winning tend to greet the topic with, “Oh, God,” “I can’t handle it,” and “the final torture.”  Hillary has been nationally famous for more time than Franklin D. Roosevelt was on the day he died.  And it's not enough for her.  Don't be shocked if she runs again.  The competition is pretty thin, and some of it is older than she is.

September 7,  2017     Permalink

IT'S ABOUT TIME – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  You've heard a great deal recently about the Southern Poverty Law Center. You saw, after the events in Charlottesville, corporations lining up to send them contributions.

But how much do you actually know about the SPLC?  More important, how much do the "journalists," who presume to give us the news, know about it?

Now, prominent conservatives have signed a letter warning about SPLC and its activities.  From Fox: 

Forty-seven prominent conservatives have signed an open letter warning the mainstream media against using data on hate groups compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The letter calls the SPLC a "discredited, left-wing political activist organization that seeks to silence its political opponents with a 'hate group' label of its own invention."

Founded in 1971, the SPLC gained fame by successfully prosecuting legal cases against white supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan. It describes its mission as "fighting hate and bigotry and ... seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society."

Today, the SPLC is best known for tracking hate groups, which the organization defines as having "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristic." Currently, the SPLC says 917 hate groups are operating in the United States. 

And...

The letter also warns that receiving the SPLC's hate group label "endangers the lives of those targeted with it." It references the 2012 shooting at the headquarters of the Family Research Council in Washington. The gunman, Floyd Lee Corkins, said he disagreed with the group's opposition to gay marriage and prosecutors said he selected the group as a target using the SPLC "hate map."

"By recklessly linking the Charlottesville melee to the mainstream groups named on the SPLC website," the letter went on, "we are left to wonder if another Floyd Lee Corkins will soon be incited to violence by this incendiary information.

Prominent signatories of the letter include Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III.

COMMENT:  It is remarkable to see how little due diligence has been practiced by the press in reporting on the SPLC.  Makes us question a lot of the other reporting, doesn't it?

September 7, 2017       Permalink

OUTRAGE – AT 9:57 A.M. ET:   At a time of crisis with North Korea, this requires an immediate series of investigations, and demonstrated improvements. I see we're getting some congressional testimony this week.  And we must ask, "Where are the whistleblowers in the United States Navy?"  From CNN: 

(CNN)  A government watchdog is raising new concerns about the safety and readiness of US ships in the Pacific region following a series of collisions that led to the deaths of US sailors.

More than a third of warfare training certifications for the Navy's Japan-based destroyers and cruisers had expired in June -- a five-fold increase from two years prior, the Government Accountability Office has found.

In testimony to be delivered Thursday, the GAO found that 37% of the Navy's destroyers and cruisers in Japan had expired -- up from 7% in January 2015 -- and over two-thirds had been expired for five months or more.

The GAO testimony, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, will fuel new questions on Capitol Hill about the cause of the four Navy ship collisions in the Pacific this year, in which 17 sailors were killed, and the health of the Navy fleet.

After the USS John S. McCain collided with a merchant vessel last month off the coast of Singapore -- an incident that accounted for 10 of the 17 deaths -- the commander of the 7th Fleet was dismissed, and the Navy ordered a rare, one-day operational pause for its entire fleet.

COMMENT:  We take justifiable pride in our armed forces.  But the American people are owed, and the men and women of our forces are owed, first-class readiness and first-class leadership.  I want to see it demonstrated, to a high standard, that we're getting both.

September 7, 2017       Permalink

UNBELIEVABLE – AT 9:41 A.M. ET:  I'm eager to hear, from the fringe left, the excuse for this.  From the Washington Times: 

ISIS terrorists have put out a call for jihadists to head to disaster areas in Texas and do whatever they can to put those outside the Islam faith “out of their misery.”

It’s a call for killings against the nation’s vulnerable, and it came courtesy of the terror group’s telegram channel.

“To all the LMs [lone mujahids or warriors] in the U.S.,” Newsweek reported, citing Jihadoscope, “pop down to Houston and drop in at any of the relief centers housing displaced people from the Houston floods, make sure to bring lots of supplies/gadgets/toys to see if you can help put any kuffs out of their misery.”

Kuffs means disbeliever — those outside the Islam faith.

And ‘lest the message be confused with a call for charitable help, consider this: It ends with emoji icons of a bomb, a knife, an explosion, a gun, a pill, an injection needle. Message received: Kill, by whatever means available.

Newsweek also noted the message was posted by a channel called “Lone Mujahid” on Telegram, an encryption app that’s frequently used by jihadists because of the privacy and protections it offers.

And there is this gem, from the Jerusalem Post: 

If you thought Islamic State had already come up with every horrific and creative way to hurt people, you were wrong.

ISIS is now campaigning and providing instructions to its “lone wolf” supporters for carrying out terrorist attacks with poisons in crowded malls, International Institute for Counter Terrorism Deputy Director Eitan Azani told a press briefing on Wednesday.

Azani made the comments along with ICT Director Boaz Ganor ahead of the IDC Herzliya institute’s conference next week on terrorism.

The deputy director described the new tactic as part of a more general trend in which ISIS is upping its push on social media for followers “to carry out jihad on enemy land, which is the opposite” of “when ISIS called for recruits to come” to Syria and Iraq.

COMMENT:  Based on the history of ISIS, which is unrelenting in its terror campaigns, I'd take these reports very seriously.  Sadly, we must await the next outrage.

September 7,  2017     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 6,  2017

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

IT'S COME TO THIS – FROM THE INDEPENDENT:  A student who mocked Isis on Facebook is being investigated over claims his post put "minority students at risk and in a state of panic and fear."  Robbie Travers, a 21-year-old third-year law student, is being probed by the University of Edinburgh over claims he committed a "hate crime," even though no criminal investigation by the police has taken place.   Yeah, you're reading it right.  This story is being covered in many places.  Apparently, mocking one of the bestial groups in existence places minority students at risk.  Universities are becoming places of embarrassment.

TRUMP AND HURRICANES – I've been monitoring news coverage of the hurricanes, with an eye, as we pointed out this morning, to their political and economic impact.  I am struck by the number of public officials, regardless of party, who are praising President Trump and his cabinet officers.  Trump is coming through, and apparently we're getting some of that well-experienced businessman's way of handling things.  Sometimes, sadly, it takes a crisis or a disaster to reveal a leader's abilities.  If Irma hits Florida, Trump's skills will be put to the test once more.  We hope it misses us.

SOMEONE FINALLY NOTICED – FROM McCLATCHY:  Under a crushing backlog in the issuing or renewing of security clearances, federal authorities have given interim clearances to people they later discovered were murderers and pedophiles, a senior government official said Wednesday.  “This is very, very dangerous,” said Daniel E. Payne, head of the Defense Security Service, a federal office that oversees the granting of temporary clearances.  Payne said roughly 100,000 people hold interim clearances while working for companies with Defense Department contracts or at 13,000 cleared facilities and plants around the country and as they await a full comprehensive background investigation.  A national scandal.  Congress must investigate.  We have entrusted important classified information to individuals who were major security risks.

September 6,  2017     Permalink

WILL THERE ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND? – AT 1:24 P.M. ET:  We trust that this madness will be sunk in the Atlantic, and never reach our shores.  From Daily Mail: 

Parents have been left furious after the secondary school once attended by Piers Morgan banned skirts to make its uniform 'gender neutral' for transgender students.

Priory School, a mixed co-ed for pupils aged 11 to 16 in Lewes, East Sussex, said it also brought in the rule following 'complaints from parents about short skirts'.

All new Year 7 pupils this term must now wear grey trousers instead of grey skirts, while students in Year 8 to Year 11 are welcome to adopt the new uniform.

DailyMail.com U.S. Editor-at-Large Morgan, who attended the school's sixth form, told MailOnline: 'It's disappointing to see one of my old schools getting sucked into this gender neutrality nonsense, which is being driven by a tiny minority of people.

'Let boys be boys and girls be girls, and stop confusing them in this ridiculous way. 

'I presume all female Priory teachers will now also be banned from wearing skirts on gender neutral grounds (which would also be absurd) - or is it one rule for them and another for the students?'

COMMENT:  Morgan is right.  Many of these social "advances" are being driven by tiny minorities who threaten to ruin the reputations of those who refuse to go along.  That is their power, the power of the public smear.  And they are often aided by a sympathetic press.

Respect, but resist!

September 6, 2017       Permalink

UPWARD – AT 10:02 A.M. ET:  The president, now facing another weather crisis, and an elevated crisis with North Korea, continues his slow path upward in approval.  Yesterday he was at 44% in Rasmussen.  Here is today's report:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-three percent (53%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 29% who Strongly Approve of the way the president is performing and 43% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14.

COMMENT:   A gain of a point.  We always stress that polls are just snapshots in time.  We might add that Trump traditionally underpolls.  His actual support is generally stronger than the polls will indicate, something he proved on election day.

Clearly, these numbers can change dramatically.  But for now, Mr. Trump is doing reasonably well.  Presidents generally rise in the polls when confronting a crisis successfully.  The polls are not predictive. 

The president is helped by the fact that the Democratic Party is in disarray, and behind the times.  Any credible leaders there?  We hear mostly from Hillary and her chorus of excuse makers.  The melody goes on.

September 6, 2017       Permalink

IRMA – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  This is now being billed as the largest Atlantic hurricane in history.  Within a few days we will know if it will hit Florida head-on.  From CNN:

The Category 5 hurricane is "potentially catastrophic," the National Hurricane Center said. Besides devastating winds, the center warns of high storm surges that could crush low-lying structures near shore.

Though Irma's path is uncertain, forecasters have said it could turn toward Florida over the weekend, and officials there are ordering some evacuations and shutting down schools.

We are not weather reporters here.  You can do better on the Weather Channel or local TV outlets.  We will be focusing on the political and economic ramifications of this monster storm.  President Trump, and his federal team, responded very well to Hurricane Harvey, whose effects in Texas will be seen for many months.  The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has been superb. 

Irma could actually be far worse, depending on where it strikes.  The president will be challenged again.  His team has heavy experience from Harvey.  The Republican governor of Florida, Rick Scott, is organized and capable.  From the Miami Herald:

About 100 members of the Florida Air and Army National Guard were activated Tuesday to begin preparations for Hurricane Irma and all 7,000 members will report for duty Friday morning, Gov. Rick Scott said.

In activating the Guard, Scott said if additional resources are needed before Friday, “then I stand ready to activate as many guard members needed to support our aggressive preparedness actions.”

“With Hurricane Irma now a category 5 storm, we must do all we can to prepare our families and communities for any potential impact from this major weather event,” Scott said in a statement. “We do not know the exact path of this storm, but weather can change in an instant and while we hope for the best, we must prepare for the worst.”

COMMENT:  The president meets at the White House today with Congressional leaders of both parties.  Even Mitch McConnell will be attending.  I'd love to be there.  Watch:  Trump will be warmer to the Democrats than to the Republicans.

We have some heavy weather days coming up.  It will be a dramatic weekend.

September 6,  2017     Permalink