Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

SEPTEMBER 12,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:30 P.M. ET:

THE LEFT-WING MADNESS CONTINUES – FROM REASON:   In recent weeks, prominent Democrats have cheered the banning of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from social platforms and have floated proposals for regulating the dissemination of foreign ads and "fake news." At the same time, they have gleefully spread conspiracy theories and falsehoods about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The latest lunacy comes courtesy of none other than Hillary Clinton, who today tweeted out talking points popularized last week by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)—talking points that mainstream and nonpartisan factcheckers have labeled false.  Harris had shared a video clip in which Kavanaugh appears to refer to birth control pills as "abortion-inducing drugs." The video was edited to elide the part that makes it clear that Kavanaugh was not expressing his own views but was describing the position taken by the plaintiffs in a case he had ruled on. Harris—and now Clinton—used this as supposed evidence that Kavanaugh is a zealot who wants to ban birth control.  Kamala Harris should be censured by the Senate for her behavior, but it will never happen.  As for Hillary, her motto should be, "Have lie, will travel."

MISS AMERICA NOT MISSED – FROM FOX:   The Miss America ceremony subtracted the swimsuit competition for the first time in its 98-year history, and subtracted one million television viewers, too.  The Nielsen company said 4.34 million people watched the annual ceremony on ABC Sunday, down 19 percent from the 5.35 million viewers last year. Declining viewership has been a consistent trend for the pageant over the past few years.  With Miss America now under the leadership of former Fox News personality Gretchen Carlson, the swimsuits were left behind. Instead, they were replaced by onstage interviews where contestants talked about President Trump, the NFL player protests and other topics.  Yet the decision has been the subject of criticism. Minutes before the nationally televised broadcast began, a comedian warming up the crowd mentioned there would be no swimsuit competition, drawing loud boos from the audience.  I don't particularly care, but if the audience wants a beauty contest, which is what Miss America traditionally was (despite denials), let them have a beauty contest.  I personally have little interest in Miss Nevada's view of the Iran nuclear deal.

ENERGY INDEPENDENCE – FROM CLIMATE DEPOT:   The United States likely surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest crude oil producer earlier this year, based on preliminary estimates in EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook.  In February, U.S. crude oil production exceeded that of Saudi Arabia for the first time in more than two decades. In June and August, the United States surpassed Russia in crude oil production for the first time since February 1999.  Although EIA does not publish crude oil production forecasts for Russia and Saudi Arabia in STEO, EIA expects that U.S. crude oil production will continue to exceed Russian and Saudi Arabian crude oil production for the remaining months of 2018 and through 2019.   Despite the push for other energy sources, the world still runs on petroleum, and our dominance of that realm is very much a good thing.  We can no longer be blackmailed with threats to cut off oil supplies.

September 12,  2018     Permalink

SOMETIMES THE EDUCATIONAL MARKET WORKS – AT 2:58 P.M. ET:   Evergreen State, a public college in the state of Washington, is synonymous with hard-left crackpot education.  And the people of the state are paying for it.  But sometimes the truth comes out and the crackpots begin to lose.  From Fox: 

Evergreen State College enrollment plummeted after fallout from the controversial “Day of Absence” in May 2017 when all white people were asked to leave the campus.

The publicly funded college – committed to social justice – became the poster child of a campus overrun by hyper-political correctness when students shut down the campus and shouted down then-evolutionary biology professor Bret Weinstein for merely questioning the event kicking white people off campus.

Weinstein, who describes himself as “deeply progressive,” ultimately lost his job and was labeled a “racist” and “white supremacist.”

Although just estimates, a representative from Evergreen said they expect around 350 freshman this fall, with a total of 3,000-3,100 total enrollment, both of which “do represent significant decreases as compared to before the 2017 unrest.”

“It’s a catastrophic drop, but I’m hoping we’ll recover,” Evergreen Professor Mike Paros told Fox News.

“Advocacy and activism rather than the pursuit of truth and knowledge is being promoted as a way of recruiting desperately needed new students,” Paros wrote. “Bringing in new faculty or guest speakers with conservative or centrist political perspectives is considered risky and out of the question at the moment. Fear and self-censorship is pervasive among Evergreen faculty, especially under the existing budget crisis.”

Paros is the only remaining Evergreen educator on Heterodox Academy, an advocacy group of professors to counteract narrowing of viewpoints on college campuses, and the practicing veterinarian who teaches biological and environmental sciences is offering a new class this fall to help change that.

The class is called “Liberal Education in the College Bubble: Crossing the Political and Cultural Divide.” He is using the college as a case study to show students how higher education deals with “issues of political diversity, free speech, freedom of thought, and censorship.”

COMMENT:  Maybe they should hire Hillary Clinton as president.  They could start a School for Advanced Excuse Studies.  A sure winner. 

September 12,  2018     Permalink

ANOTHER DISGRACE – AT 1:55 P.M. ET:   Former Secretary of State John Kerry, a man whose ego vastly exceeds his intellect, has been doing some freelancing.  It has been reported before, but this is the first time he's confirmed the details.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

Former Secretary of State John Kerry disclosed that he has been conducting rogue diplomacy with top Iranian officials to salvage the landmark nuclear deal and push the Islamic Republic to negotiate its contested missile program, according to recent remarks.

Kerry, in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt to promote his new book, said that he has met with Iranian Former Minister Javad Zarif—the former secretary's onetime negotiating partner—three or four times in recent months behind the Trump administration's back.

"I think I've seen him three or four times," Kerry said, adding that he has been conducting sensitive diplomacy without the current administration's authorization. Kerry said he has criticized the current administration in these discussions, chiding it for not pursuing negotiations from Iran, despite the country's fevered rhetoric about the U.S. president.

Kerry's comments are in line with previous reporting on his behind-the-scenes attempts to save the nuclear deal and ensure that Iran continues receiving billions in cash windfalls. These payments were brought to a halt by the Trump administration when it abandoned the nuclear agreement and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran that have nearly toppled its economy and sparked a popular revolution.

COMMENT:  It is grossly inappropriate for a former secretary of state to pursue private diplomacy.  I don't know if it's a violation of the Logan Act, which is supposed to prevent such things, but it complicates the strategy of the current secretary, Mike Pompeo.

And the nerve of Grand Admiral Kerry to criticize the current administration to a foreign enemy.  Who does he think he is?  Well, we know that.  All he has to add is the halo around his head.

This is the Washington establishment at its worst.  Even Richard Nixon stressed, when he was elected president in 1968, that we have one president at a time, cautioning his staff not to become over-eager before inauguration. 

Kerry's behavior not only gives aid and comfort to an enemy, it encourages our so-called "allies" in the European Union, who care only about their business deals with Iran, and are trying to short-circuit President Trump's clear-headed attempts to change Iranian policy on missiles and nuclear weapons.

September 12, 2018       Permalink

UNBELIEVABLE – AT 12:30 P.M. ET:  We've seen bad journalism, and we've seen really bad journalism.  But the Washington Post this morning outdid itself in sheer absurdity, shallowness, and ridiculousness.  From Fox:   

The editorial board of the Washington Post has declared that President Trump is “complicit” for Hurricane Florence because of his views on climate change.

The massive storm has not made landfall yet, but the Post published a column on Wednesday headlined, “Another hurricane is about to batter our coast. Trump is complicit.”

The piece also notes that Trump has given “good advice” when issuing hurricane warnings via his Twitter feed before it launched an attack on the president.

“When it comes to extreme weather, Mr. Trump is complicit. He plays down humans’ role in increasing the risks, and he continues to dismantle efforts to address those risks. It is hard to attribute any single weather event to climate change. But there is no reasonable doubt that humans are priming the Earth’s systems to produce disasters,” the editorial board wrote.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos’s paper then quotes a climate researcher who said that previous hurricanes would not have produced so much rain without “human-induced climate change” and Florence is another indication of global warming.

“With depressingly ironic timing, the Trump administration announced Tuesday a plan to roll back federal rules on methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is the main component in natural gas. Drillers and transporters of the fuel were supposed to be more careful about letting it waft into the atmosphere, which is nothing more than rank resource waste that also harms the environment,” the Post’s editorial board wrote. “The Trump administration has now attacked all three pillars of President Barack Obama’s climate-change plan.”

The piece concluded: “The president has cemented the GOP’s legacy as one of reaction and reality denial. Sadly, few in his party appear to care.”

Conservative strategist Chris Barron told Fox News that the mainstream media ‘finds new ways to embarrass themselves and further erode Americans confidence in them” on a daily basis.

“This column is so absurd it should be coming from The Onion, not the Washington Post. To the extent that climate change is happening, it is a global phenomenon that has been occurring for decades and decades,” Barron said. “The media won’t give Trump credit for the economy but they will blame him for a hurricane. You can’t make this stuff up.”

COMMENT:  I do not expect anything great from liberal journalism.  But we have a right to expect a level of maturity above that of the fifth grade.  We didn't get it from the Post this morning.

September 12,  2018     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 11,  2018

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

THE FOOL – FROM DAILY MAIL:   The feud between President Donald Trump and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has been kept under wraps in recent months, but it exploded in a very big way on Tuesday.   That is when The Washington Post published an editorial by Scarborough with the headline 'Trump is harming the dream of America more than any foreign adversary ever could.'  Scarborough wrote in his piece about that 'the tragic lessons of that time are still lost on our leaders,' referring to both George W. Bush and Barack Obama as well as Trump.   He did single out Trump however in the headline and to close the piece, while suggesting that the president's supporters were complicit in his actions.  The first son was none to happy with this, and tweeted: 'Joe you owe an apology to the 3000+ families who lost loved ones on this tragic day. Injecting politics today is disgraceful and only shows how irrelevant and deranged you’ve become.'  The first son is right.  Scarborough's comments were way out of line.  He is a sideshow, with his sidekick Mika. 

YES TO THE ECONOMY – FROM CNBC:   U.S. small business optimism surged to a record in August as the tax cuts and deregulation efforts of President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress led to more sales, hiring and investment, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.  The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index jumped to 108.8 last month, the highest level ever recorded in the survey's 45-year history and a above the previous record of 108 in 1983, set during the second year of Ronald Reagan's presidency. The August figure was up from a 107.9 reading in July.   This will drive Democrats crazy, as they have utter contempt for small business.  Who are those people who work hard, serve the public on Main Street, and refuse to take the American flags out of their windows?

COLLINS TARGETED – FROM THE HILL:  Staffers for GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), viewed as a key swing vote in the Supreme Court fight, say they are receiving "vulgar" phone calls over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination.   Aides for the moderate senator, on social media and in multiple reports published on Tuesday evening, detailed calls and voicemails Collins's offices have been receiving as the battle over Kavanaugh kicks into high gear ahead of an end-of-the-month Senate vote.  "We've had some very abusive callers. ...We've had some very vulgar calls and sort of harassing the staff," Steve Abbot, Collins's chief of staff, told a Maine TV station.  Real class.  And they complain about Donald Trump.

September 11,  2018     Permalink
 

CALIFORNIA MIRACLE – AT 1:50 P.M. ET:  California, once a Republican state, has, in recent decades, been almost solidly Democratic.  Its Democratic Party is one of the most extreme in the country.  But have the extreme leftist policies of California gone too far, even for its voters?  A new poll in the governor's race shows the conservative Republican closing fast.  We stress that this is only one poll.  But, if accurate, it may show that the left is running into some headwinds in the Golden State.  From American Thinker:   

Confounding the political punditocracy, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox is rising rapidly in the polls, and is now so close to overtaking Democrat Gavin Newsom he's nearly within the margin of error of winning. That's what a new statewide poll from Probolsky Research, conducted Aug. 29-Sep. 2 among 900 likely voters found. According to the Sacramento Bee:

"If California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was expecting an easy race for the governor’s mansion, a poll released Thursday didn’t carry much in the way of good news.

"While the statewide poll from Probolsky Research showed Newsom leading with 44 percent of respondents, his Republican opponent John Cox had 39 percent support; a further 17 percent of those polled were unsure whom they would support."

So all the pundit claims about Cox running in an unwinnable race, due to the Democrats' voter-registration advantage, seem to be falling apart.

Admittedly, these polls are sparse and I am not sure how good most of them are. But it does suggest there's a trend on, with Newsom not only slipping but Cox gaining, and that may well be because of Newsom's promise of free health care for illegals. And as insult to injury for Newsom, turns out the Hispanic vote is nearly evenly split in favor of Cox, which undoubtedly represents a rise for Cox from a constituency Newsom thought he had in the bag. Apparently, that didn't impress Latino voters the way Newsom thought it would, because, well, those voters, all of whom would be citizens, not illegals, are going to be the ones paying for it.

Cox, based on his website, hasn't said much about the health care issue, but he is focusing on issues that are important to Latino voters, rather than Latino (and other) illegals. Apparently, Cox sees two different groups of people among the citizens and non-citizens, while Newsom sees just skin color.

COMMENT:  It would be sweet to see California turned back to the Republicans.  Ah Ronnie.  Ah Arnold.  Where have you gone? 

It's till a long fight, with the odds against us.  But at least there's a Republican fighting for the governorship.  Here in New York, I don't even know who the Republican candidate is.

September 11, 2018       Permalink

A VERY CREEPY STORY – AT 12:52 P.M. ET:   About arrests of Bangadeshis illegally crossing the border into Texas.  My question is this:  Bangladesh is a desperately poor country in Asia.  How do these people get to Mexico and then get up to the U.S. border?  Frequent flyer points?  I'm sure John Kerry can supply an appropriately intellectual answer.  From Breitbart: 

Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents continue to lead the nation in the apprehension of Bangladeshi nationals who illegally cross the border from Mexico into Texas. More than 100 were arrested in the past three weeks — totaling 622 this fiscal year.

On September 7, Laredo Sector agents apprehended a group of five illegal immigrants who crossed the Rio Grande River border with Mexico into the Santa Rita subdivision. The agents interviewed the group and learned that they came to the U.S. from Bangladesh, according to Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials.

The Bangladeshis consisted of two juveniles and three adults, officials stated.
The latest arrests bring the total for Fiscal Year 2018 to 622. A few weeks ago, Breitbart Texas reported on the number of arrests at 520 after agents arrested more than 20 Bangladeshi nationals over a short period of days. Since that time, more than 100 Bangladeshis were arrested in the Laredo Sector alone.

The rate of apprehensions in the Laredo Sector has accelerated over the past few months, officials reported.

If the trend continues, there could be more than 700 arrested before the fiscal year ends in September.

The 622 Bangladeshis arrested in the Laredo Sector this fiscal year compares to the previous annual total of 181 (an increase of nearly 244 percent).

COMMENT:  And the people of Texas may elect a Democratic senator this year who has no problem with open borders.  Shame.

September 11, 2018       Permalink

TODAY – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  Today is the 17th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.  Americans are still commemorating the day.

But do they actually remember?  Consider the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.  That date became symbolic for an entire generation.  But think ahead 17 years from that day.  It would have been 1958.  World War II was long over, and we had actually fought another war, in Korea, in the interim.   Pearl Harbor was still commemorated in 1958, as it is today.  But, over time, the impact, sadly, fades.

But still, it is good to have commemorations, if only to teach the young that something very important happened on this day.  From AP: 

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans were commemorating 9/11 with somber tributes, volunteer projects and a new monument to victims Tuesday, after a year when two attacks demonstrated the enduring threat of terrorism in the nation's biggest city.

Margie Miller was among the thousands of 9/11 victims' relatives, survivors, rescuers and others who gathered on a misty Tuesday morning at the memorial plaza where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood. She came to the site from her home in suburban Baldwin, as she does 10 or so times a year, to remember her husband, Joel Miller. Only a few fragments of his remains were recovered.

"To me, he is here. This is my holy place," his widow said before the ceremony began a moment of silence and tolling bells at 8:46 a.m., the time when the trade center was hit by the first of two terrorist-piloted planes. Victims' relatives who had brought signs bearing photos of their loved ones wordlessly held them high.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence headed to the two other places where hijacked planes crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, in the deadliest terror attack on American soil.

The president and first lady Melania Trump flew to Pennsylvania to join an observance at the Sept. 11 memorial in a field near Shanksville, where a new "Tower of Voices" was dedicated Saturday. Pence is attending a ceremony at the Pentagon. Trump, a Republican and native New Yorker, took the occasion of last year's anniversary to issue a stern warning to extremists that "America cannot be intimidated."

Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks on 9/11, when international terrorism hit home in a way it previously hadn't for many Americans. Sept. 11 still shapes American policy, politics and everyday experiences in places from airports to office buildings, even if it's less of a constant presence in the public consciousness after 17 years.

A stark reminder came not long after last year's anniversary: A truck mowed down people, killing eight, on a bike path within a few blocks of the World Trade Center on Halloween.

COMMENT:  Terrorism is a method.  We have not yet "won" the war on terror, but we really don't know how many terror attacks have been prevented.  The terror groups know that they are constantly being confronted, and will be more vigorously confronted by this president than by the last one, who wanted to call terror attacks "man-made disasters."

September 11,  2018     Permalink

\