SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:50 P.M. ET: 

AN ATTACK ON TWITTER IS AN ATTACK ON ALL OF US – From AFP:  "ANKARA — Turkey’s combative prime minister warned on Thursday that he would eradicate Twitter in the wake of damaging allegations of corruption in his inner circle that have spread across social networks in recent weeks.  'We will wipe out Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says' premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an election rally in the western province of Bursa."  And the UN Security Council does nothing.

TAKE THAT, YANKEES – From Reuters:  "MOSCOW - Russia imposed retaliatory sanctions on nine US officials and lawmakers on Thursday as tension over Moscow's annexation of Crimea mounted, warning the West it would hit back over 'every hostile thrust.'  Deputy national security advisers Ben Rhodes and Caroline Atkinson and senators John McCain, Harry Reid and Mary Landrieu, Dan Coats and Robert Menendez were among the Americans barred from Russia, the Foreign Ministry said.  The others were House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama."  Dem senators running for re-election in swing states are desperately trying to get on that list.

DISGRACEFUL – From The New York Times:  "HONG KONG — The chairman of Bloomberg L.P. said in a speech here on Thursday that the company should have reconsidered articles that deviated from its core of coverage of business news, because they jeopardized the huge sales potential for its products in the Chinese market.  The comments by the chairman, Peter T. Grauer, represented the starkest acknowledgment yet by a senior Bloomberg executive that the ambitions of the news division should be assessed in the context of the business operation, which provides the bulk of the company’s revenue. They also signaled which of those considerations might get priority."  I think Mike Bloomberg ought to get involved personally on this, and reassure his news division that it has editorial independence – or abolish the news division. 

AIRLINER – Don't be shocked if you see the Malaysian airliner story start to fade, unless of course the plane is found.  The massive search now going on off Australia may take as many as 26 days to complete, with no guarantee of success.  The flow of relevant facts is slowing.  The mystery may never be solved.  I have no idea what cable news will do with their time. 

March 20, 2014