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

STOPPING A TERROR ATTACK – We still do not have all the details on this.  From Fox:   Off-duty members of the U.S. military subdued a gunman "known to intelligence services" after he opened fire, injuring three aboard on a high-speed train en route to Paris from Amsterdam Friday.  Three U.S. servicemen were on board the train and overpowered the man when the train stopped in the northern French city of Arras, 115 miles north of Paris, French media reported. Some reports said the men were U.S. Marines but that could not be confirmed.  The French are being tight-lipped.  If the attack had succeeded, many, many people could have died.  There's got to be more to this story.  We'll be looking.

SELLOFF – There is worry in the stock market.  From Fox:  Wall Street plunged for a second-straight day, forcing all three major U.S. averages to give up their 2015 gains and causing the Dow to easily enter correction territory.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 530 points, or 3.11% to 16462. The S&P 500 shed 64 points, or 3.17% to 1971, while the Nasdaq plunged 171 points, or 3.52% to 4706.  Technology and energy stocks took the biggest hit during the session, with the respective sectors dropping 4.21% and 3.48%.  There is worry about a number of issues, including the state of the Chinese economy.   Market observers will be looking to see if the dive continues into next week.  Clearly, if there's a major adjustment, it could affect the 2016 election result, especially if unemployment starts to rise.

COMMON SENSE – From The Hill:   Two out of three black people prefer the term “all lives matter” to “black lives matter,” according to a Rasmussen poll released Thursday.  Only 31 percent of black people surveyed said that the statement “black lives matter” most closely comports to their own beliefs, compared to 64 percent who chose “all lives matter.”  Seventy-eight percent of total respondents also chose “all lives matter,” including 81 percent of white and 76 percent of minority respondents, according to the poll.  Good common sense from the African-American community. 

August 21, 2015