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SEPTEMBER 5,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:15 P.M. ET: 

I CAN'T WAIT – FROM THE WEEK:   NBC has just announced what sounds like the most depressing Law & Order series yet: Law & Order: Hate Crimes.  Deadline reports that the network has ordered 13 episodes of this new show, which will be based on New York's actual Hate Crimes Task Force. The characters from Hate Crimes will first be introduced during an upcoming episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, making this a spinoff of a spinoff.  Hate Crimes is co-created by Warren Leight, the former showrunner of SVU. He'll work alongside Dick Wolf, the creator of the entire Law & Order franchise. Per Deadline, Wolf said that he wants to "depict what’s really going on in our cities and shine a light on the wide-ranging victims and show that justice can prevail."  I can just imagine the pomposity at the first awards ceremony.  And, of course, every respectable actor or actress will want to play one of the victims, and to be interviewed to tell "my personal story."  Quick, my pills!

HEARTENING NEWS – FROM BLOOMBERG:   (Bloomberg) -- The number of people facing hunger in the U.S. declined last year to the lowest since 2007 as unemployment fell, a key data point as Congress debates changes to food-aid programs as part of farm legislation.  About 40 million people were "food insecure" in 2017, meaning that at some point in the year their ability to obtain adequate food was in question, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in an annual study released Wednesday. That represents a 2.8 percent decline from 2016. Hunger was most prevalent in New Mexico, with 17.9 percent of households affected, while Hawaii’s rate of 7.4 percent was the lowest in the nation.  The number is still too high, but Trump's economy is making a difference.

MELANIA ACES IT – FROM GATEWAY PUNDIT:  Far-left actress Issa Rae told Glamour magazine she would cancel her HBO show if beautiful first lady Melania Trump liked it.  In an interview with Glamour, the HBO star, 33, recalled former first lady Michelle Obama raving about the Season 2 finale back in 20…Then came the thought: What if the current first lady Melania Trump enjoyed the show as much?
“If Melania [Trump] said that to me, I would be like, ‘Well, I guess it’s canceled. We’re not making this show. It’s not ours anymore,’” she said.  On Wednesday lovely Melania Trump called her bluff.
The First Lady’s spokesperson tweeted out that Melania loves Issa’s show.  Back to you, Issa.  Another Hollywood phony, like the ones who said they'd leave the United States if Trump were elected. 

September 5, 2018       Permalink 

**ONE-LINER:  I've been spot-checking the confirmation hearings.  Judge Kavanaugh is holding up very well against the Dem onslaught.  They can't touch him.

CONFRONTING THE ISSUE – AT 12:53 P.M. ET:  Many of us who have tried to support the president, and believe he has some superb ideas, and note that he has actually accomplished important results,  are nevertheless troubled by his personal style and the way it detracts from his administration.

Andrew Malcolm, a solidly conservative commentator whom I deeply respect, is tackling the issue.  From McClatchy:

Every commander in chief makes revealing mistakes, of course. Barack Obama thought his nation’s motto was E Pluribus Unum and Austrians speak Austrian.

But Donald J. Trump is taking this to a whole new level. He seems to confuse headstrong with decisive. And he is so certain of his own keen judgment and skills that he regularly rejects the advice of the skilled professionals he’s hired to advise him.

The latest of many such instances involves the late Sen. John McCain. We hire politicians to grease the wheels of our democracy, to help with the sticky problems we cannot solve by ourselves. Not to make new ones to distract us from yesterday’s problems.

I’ve worked for politicians who absolutely could not stand another individual in public life. Detest is the word. But the public never knew it. In fact, even the other person may not have known it.

Because the best politicians have the self-discipline to work with or around others to get results.

Frustrating for media, of course, which thrives on conflict. But such behavior avoids totally unnecessary fights and troubles, if only out of mutual self-interest. They might need each other at some future time.

Clearly, Trump and McCain disliked each other. Trump attended a military prep school and received numerous draft deferments. McCain descended from a long line of military family members and graduated from the Naval Academy albeit, he would joke, at the bottom of his class.

Back during his presidential campaign, Trump said McCain was no hero for getting shot down over North Vietnam and serving nearly six torturous years as a POW. It was a needless shot. They weren’t competing.

Do you remember McCain’s reply at the time? Neither do I. There was none.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  Andrew sums up our anguish very well.  The president has made needless enemies, even in his own party.  If the Dems win the House and impeach him, he will need friends. Nixon needed friends, and couldn't find them.  I fear we may see a repeat. 

What a tragedy.  We finally have a president who asks the right questions and disturbs the comfortable establishment, and his own flaws may sink him.  Never underestimate the mean-spiritedness of the Democratic Party in trying to hound a president from power.

September 5, 2018       Permalink

IT CAN'T BE DENIED – AT 11:48 A.M. ET:  We have a problem on our side.  There has been a sudden, unexplained drop in support for a Republican Congress and for the president in the last two weeks.  The polls are aligning.  The generic ballot shows Dems ahead by an average of 11 points.  It was much less at the start of August.

And the president is clearly losing support.  Today's Rasmussen tracker has him at 44%.  He had reached 50% in Rasmussen only a few weeks ago.  Other polls have him as low as 38%.

What is the reason?

I don't know.  No one does.  But we are not starting this fall campaign in a good position.  Clearly, that can change.  We have had the McCain funeral, with all the Trump bashing.  We've had advance word on the Woodward book, and we've had the emergence of young, attractive, but hard-left "progressive" candidates.  Maybe these things aligned.

Or maybe people are tiring of the president's personal antics.

Or maybe the polls will reverse soon, as the GOP gets going. 

The clear need is for our side to fight hard, get the voters out, and make the argument.  We'll follow the polls to see if there's improvement, but don't be shocked if we go down before we go up. 

September 5,  2018     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 4,  2018

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

HOW LOW CAN YOU GET? – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  A former clerk to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was accused by Twitter trolls of using a “white supremacist” symbol — even though the woman is of Mexican and Jewish heritage.  Zina Bash was attending Kavanaugh’s nomination hearing on Tuesday when cameras caught her resting her arm in a way that some construed as a controversial symbol used by the alt-right.  “What fresh hell is this!!!???” activist Amy Siskind wrote on Twitter about the image.  “Kavanaugh’s assistant Zina Bash giving the white power sign right behind him during the hearing? This alone should be disqualify!!!”  The odd allegation spread across the internet, but was quickly debunked by Bash’s friends and family.  As usual, the race card was played early.  It is really the only thing the left has.  It is the new McCarthyism.

ANOTHER CLOWN FOR THE CIRCUS – FROM FOX:  Boston city councilor Ayanna Pressley unseated 10-term U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in a Democratic primary Tuesday in the latest shakeup of the House Democratic caucus by a far-left challenger.  Capuano conceded defeat to Pressley in the race to represent Massachusetts' 7th District approximately 30 minutes before The Associated Press formally called the race. With 69 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, Pressley had the lead by 10,682 votes.  The media will make much of this, but we shouldn't.  The district is heavily minority, and Capuano, although a "progressive," is an old warhorse.  The issue is how far to the left Democrats want to go.  When they've tried this before, American voters sent them corrective messages. 

SOME EARLY POLLS ARE DEPRESSING – FROM NBC:   Democratic candidate and Mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum has a slight lead over U.S. Representative and Republican candidate Ron DeSantis in Florida's governor's race, according to a new poll by Quinnipiac University.  The poll found that 50 percent of likely voters would vote Gillum, and 47 percent would vote DeSantis.  Men back DeSantis 52 to 45 percent, while women back Gillum 55 to 42 percent, according to the poll.  Not good, not good.  Gillum is a socialist, backed by Bernie Sanders and George Soros.  He presides over a city with the highest crime rate in Florida, and many voters apparently don't care.  Of course, this is only one poll, and the campaign has just begun.  Polls in some other places show equally depressing results, at least for now.  Midterms are usually turnout elections, dependent on which side can get its voters out.   It's time to fight.

September 4, 2018       Permalink

RAHM NOT RUNNING – AT 12:08 P.M. ET:  Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago just announced that he is not running for re-election.  

I don't  blame him.  Who would want to govern a city that doesn't want to be governed, and won't face the truth about its condition?  Emanuel was recently attacked severely for daring to say that morals might have something to do with crime in the city's minority community.  Didn't he know it was the gun manufacturers?  From NBC Chicago: 

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel unexpectedly announced Tuesday that he will not be running for re-election.

In a last-minute press conference, the mayor revealed he would not be seeking a third term after serving since 2011.

"This has been the job of a lifetime but it is not a job for a lifetime," he said. 

The upcoming race began to take shape, with potential candidates already throwing their hats into the ring, including former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, who was fired by Emanuel in the wake of the release of video showing the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

The mayor’s announcement takes place as Officer Jason Van Dyke’s trial begins in that case. 

Emanuel said he and his wife Amy, who was standing by his side during the announcement, decided to "write another chapter together" as their three children have left for college. 

COMMENT:  I have no doubt that the election for mayor will be all about race, gender, and ethnicity.  Nothing will be solved.  Nothing ever seems to be solved in this once-great city.

September 4, 2018       Permalink

IS THIS SERIOUS? – AT 11:38 A.M. ET:   At first I thought this was a joke.  Then I realized it wasn't, except maybe to the board of directors of the company involved.  From Fox: 

Nike shares fell Tuesday after the company selected the controversial former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick as the new face of the athletic wear company’s “Just Do It” campaign, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

“Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt,” Kaepernick, who has been with Nike since 2011, posted on Twitter on Monday afternoon. The athlete is currently a free agent and has not played on an NFL team since the 2016 season.

The now-free agent quarterback, who led the Niners to Super Bowl XLVII where they fell to the Baltimore Ravens, stirred up controversy when he began kneeling during the playing of the national anthem prior to NFL games, beginning in the summer of 2016, to protest racial injustices against the African-American community.

Many other players have joined the movement since it began, which eventually led to NFL owners voting to enact a national anthem policy for the 2018 season. Under the new guidelines announced in May, players and others associated with the NFL who are on the sideline must stand during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, while those who choose not to stand must remain in the locker room.

COMMENT:  A poor choice, in my view.  I mean, who is this for?  Nike's products are sold well beyond the African-American community.  And there is deep resentment toward Kaepernick's contempt for the flag.  He could have staged his protest on his own time, not on someone else's.

As far as this sacrificing everything, that's nonsense.  The man has made millions.

I don't think this will go down well.  There have already been scenes on TV of customers burning their Nikes.

September 4, 2018       Permalink 

CHAOS ON DEMAND – AT 10:54 A.M. ET:  Hearings, or warfare, got underway this morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee, to examine the president's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. 

Democrats, showing they can be just as immature as their party's left wing, immediately tried to stop the hearings with demands for millions of documents and other demands to adjourn.  There were some demonstrators, obviously rehearsed and carefully selected for their high sense of showmanship, who joined in.

The Dems didn't get very far, and the ultra-experienced chairman, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, continued the hearing. 

Expect to see much grandstanding, much anguish on the part of the Dems, predictions that the country will perish if the judge gets to the high court, and, ultimately, his approval by the committee on a party-line vote.

All the rest is a Broadway overture.

September 4,  2018     Permalink