SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:37 P.M. ET: 

NOT STERLING – The NBA is severely punishing Donald Sterling, the owner of the L.A. Clippers, for racist remarks.  From CBS:  "NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Tuesday Clippers owner Donald Sterling will be suspended for life and fined $2.5 million following racist remarks he made in a recorded audio clip.  Silver spoke to the press at an 11 a.m. news conference from New York, stating he will 'do everything in my power' to force the sale of the Clippers."   Perfectly fine.  I'd like to see a little more consistency, though.  Apparently, Sterling's obnoxious behavior was well known over the years.  It's only when he was caught on tape that the truth brought him down.  In other words, the NBA was forced to act.  I'd also like to see harsher penalties for players who fall below standards in their behavior.

YOUTH TURNING FROM GOVERNMENT – From Business Insider:  "A new poll surveying young Americans' political attitudes released by Harvard University's Institute of Politics Tuesday found millennials have less trust in government than ever before.  Harvard's poll showed millennials, which the pollsters defined as peopled aged 18 to 29, have lost trust in a variety of different major public institutions including the President, the military, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the federal government as a whole. Of all the institutions tracked by the poll, the President and the military lost the most trust among young Americans with a seven point drop. Overall, the pollsters said the level of trust millennials have in 'most American institutions tested in our survey' had dropped below even 'last year’s historically low numbers.'"  I'm not surprised at the drop in the presidency.  I am surprised at the drop in trust of the military.  I'm guessing this is happening because of what young people are taught in left-wing schools.

BULLETIN:  DARYL HANNAH OPPOSES KEYSTONE PIPELINE – We're rushing this to you.  From Fox:  "Actress Daryl Hannah and FBN’s Stuart Varney got into a heated debate on Tuesday over the Keystone pipeline.  Off the bat, Hannah expressed support for President Obama’s decision to delay the final ruling on Keystone XL – but said he didn’t go far enough.  'I don’t actually think the delay was a great move. What I think would be a great move is all-out rejection,' said Hannah.  Varney, however, argued that the pipeline could help wean the United States off of oil from countries like Venezuela."  I'm so sorry I missed that debate.  I would have recorded it.  If there's one person whose political opinion I value, it's Daryl Hannah.  Who is she?

STUNNING – From the Daily Beast:  "The United States has proof that the Russian government in Moscow is running a network of spies inside eastern Ukraine because the U.S. government has recordings of their conversations, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a closed-door meeting Friday."  What is stunning here is not that we're listening in on phone conversations, but that a secretary of state would acknowledge it publicly.  It's bad practice, for it provides propaganda to enemies and allows them to change the subject from what they're doing to what we're doing.  Kerry has a kind of blundering quality about him.  Maybe he's just trying to imitate his boss.

April 29, 2014