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

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD? – FROM VANITY FAIR:  Kevin Hart announced on Twitter that he’s stepping down from hosting the Oscars next February. In two tweets issued late Thursday evening, Hart finally apologized for his comments from 2011 that included homophobic slurs, and announced that he would not be hosting the Oscars on February 24, 2019.  The tweets read, “I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscars....this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists. I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past."  Hosting the Oscars used to be a plum assignment in Tinseltown.  Now they have to go down to second- and third-tier talent to find someone willing.  It's a thankless job, subjecting the host to endless criticism and the possibility of a career-ending slip of the tongue.  No one cares much about the Oscar show anyway.  They read off the names of ten nominated movies most Americans have never heard of, and feature a parade of semi-stars denouncing Republicans.  I don't watch.

THE PHONY – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2018 re-election campaign spent nearly $300,000 on private jet services in October, a report from the Federal Election Commission shows.  Sanders, a climate change hawk, went on a campaign blitz involving nine states to stump for Democratic candidates ahead of the November midterm elections, according to VTDigger. His aggressive campaigning likely served as a preamble for the independent senator’s potential bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.  Sanders, who flew on private Apollo jets, has already positioned himself highlighting climate change as a major economic, infrastructure, and national security challenge in 2020. His busy travel schedule came the same month he issued a stark warning ahead of the November elections on the planet’s impending doom if humanity remains largely asleep at the wheel combating environmental threats.  “Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet,” Sanders said in an Oct. 17 tweet.  What a fraud.  Private jets and all.  Why don't these leftists finally admit that the real objective of "climate change" policy is the end of capitalism?

YIKES – FROM THE TELEGRAPH:  DeepMind’s artificial intelligence programme AlphaZero is now showing signs of human-like intuition and creativity, in what developers have hailed as ‘turning point’ in history. The computer system amazed the world last year when it mastered the game of chess from scratch within just four hours, despite not being programmed how to win. But now, after a year of testing and analysis by chess grandmasters, the machine has developed a new style of play unlike anything ever seen before, suggesting the programme is now improvising like a human.  Kind of reminds me of Hillary Clinton.  A new gimmick every minute.

December 6, 2018