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FEBRUARY 9,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:57 P.M. ET: 

TRUMP DELAYS DEM MEMO – FROM THE HILL:   President Trump is not ready to approve the release of a Democratic memo meant to rebut a document he declassified last week that was authored by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, the White House announced.  White House counsel Don McMahon wrote a letter to House Intelligence Committee chairman Dev in Nuns (R-Cal if.) explaining that “although the president is inclined to declassify” the Democratic memo, the administration believes it would create “especially significant concerns” for “national security and law enforcement interests."  Trump’s legal team insists that it came to that conclusion at the behest of senior officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (DOJ).  In a separate letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, McGahn highlighted the information the White House says it believes is problematic and should not be released.  It's been reported that the Dems loaded their memo with problematic, sensitive material, to force the president to delay its release.   Then the Dems could claim that Trump was trying to suppress it, which indeed they're now claiming.  The memo, cleaned up, will eventually be out.

AWKWARD – FROM FOX:   A possible thaw in diplomatic relations between North and South Korea continued over lunch Saturday at the Blue House in Seoul, residence of South Korean President Moon Jae-in.  Moon's guests were Kim Yo Jong, younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and other senior delegates from Pyongyang, whose visit to South Korea is coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  On Friday, Kim Yo Jong, 28, became the first member of the Kim family to cross into the South since the 1950-53 Korean War. The lunch marked the first time a North Korean delegation was hosted at the Blue House since November 2007.  Nonsense.  The North Koreans are on a charm offensive, but their nuclear and missile programs continue.  The current leader of South Korea is seen in Washington as overly soft, but the people of South Korea appear to realize this and are steadfast allies of the United States.

ROLE REVERSAL – FROM COLLEGE FIX: When Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded the Obama administration’s Title IX guidance documents, some states considered legislation that would codify its provisions in their own laws, namely a low evidence standard and preferential treatment of accusers.
The co-author of a California codification bill, vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown, and national leader in the #MeToo movement has now herself been accused by multiple men.  It’s causing Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia immediate headaches: A college where she was scheduled to speak today has postponed the event.  She also announced Friday she was “voluntarily taking an immediate unpaid leave” from the Assembly “so as not to serve as a distraction or in any way influence the process of this investigation,” even as she disputed the allegations.  This was bound to happen.  The great majority of charges in this area are made against men, of course, but there have been disturbing cases where women are charged,

February 9, 2018      Permalink

SHE GETS IT RIGHT AGAIN – AT 6:14 P.M. ET:   The great and very independent Sharyl Attkisson notes the curious behavior of many "journalists" in the face of disturbing information emerging from Washington investigations.  From RealClearPolitics: 

Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson said she has never seen the number of supposed open government groups and journalists "so uncurious and begging" not to be told about alleged or supposed violations of citizens rights.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson on the Tuesday edition of his FOX News show, the veteran journalist said "propagandists" have been invited into newsrooms to dictate "talking points de jour," making it more difficult to do unbiased reporting.

Attkisson also talked about intelligence agencies introducing "bad evidence" to obtain a FISA warrant or using a "reverse engineering" method to surveil someone else who is not the target.

"Long before Trump announced running for president, I had intel sources, contacts, who I'm still in touch with, who have said that for a long time there has been presentation of bad evidence to the FISA court to justify warrants, that there has been sort of a reverse engineering when political figures want to target people illegally," Attkisson said.

"They find someone in their orbit that they can target and then capture them incidentally and then accidentally capture their data and unmask them acting surprised that that's who it was when that's the target that they intended to capture all along," she explained.

COMMENT:  Unfortunately, Attkisson is considered a pariah in parts of mainstream journalism because she's exposed the dry rot and corruption of the "profession."  I was struck by her accusation that "propagandists" have been invited into newsrooms to dictate talking points.  Isn't this charge worth a serious journalistic investigation?  I guess not. 

"Journalists" boast that they are the eyes and ears of the public.  They are not.  They are the eyes and ears only of themselves.  They claim they protect the Nation.  Well, if they're powerful enough to protect the Nation, they're powerful enough to destroy it.  As we've noted here before, they seem to be trying.

February 9, 2018       Permalink

WHAT'S THIS? –  AT 12:53 P.M. ET:  Apparently there's been a change in the weather forecast.  Please wake up Al Gore.  He might want to sell some stock in global-warming companies.  There's money on every side here.  From International Business Times: 

Remember the 1989 science fiction novel The Dying Sun by Gary Blackwood, where people were forced to migrate from the US to Mexico because of the freezing weather triggered by cooling down of the Sun? Scientists are now afraid that such a situation can become a reality in the near future. The question that now arises is, are we at all prepared for another ice age?

A study by the University of California San Diego has claimed that by 2050, the Sun is expected to become cool. You might think "what's the big deal," but remember that this means the solar activities that create the heat of the Sun to sustain life on Earth may diminish. And the last time it happened was in the 17th Century, when the Thames River froze. Scientists call this the "Maunder Minimum".

Physicist Dan Lubin at the university and his team studied the past event and concluded that were are in for a worse case. The Sun is expected to get much dimmer than last time and, in scientific terms, it is a "grand minimum" -- a time period in the 11-year solar cycle when the solar activities are at the lowest point.

According to the study, titled Ultraviolet Flux Decrease Under a Grand Minimum from IUE Short-wavelength Observation of Solar Analogs and published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, this grand minimum will be 7 percent cooler than such periods from the past.

Scientists also said that the Sun might have another cooling period in a decade.

COMMENT:  Gee.  I guess I'll never be able to wear all that global-warming stuff I bought.  But, seriously, isn't it time we nailed down some of this "climate science"?  There have been so many contradictory predictions. 

I believe, as I've said here many times, that we need a transparent presidential commission, patterned after the Challenger commission, and led by a prominent scientist of unquestioned integrity, to examine 1) what we know, 2) what we don't know, and 3) what we must know about the changing climate.  We need this commission before we earmark trillions of dollars to chase a problem that may not exist. 

We also need an examination of exactly who profits from "scientific" predictions.  I think the results would be very interesting.

February 9, 2018       Permalink

THE PRESIDENT HOLDS – AT 11:31 A.M.  It's been a bad week at the stock market, but President Trump continues to hold strong in the polls.  We may well be seeing a change in perception and a weariness on the part of voters with the monotony of the anti-Trump press.  From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 49% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 35% who Strongly Approve of the way the president is performing and 42% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -7. (see trends).

Since last week’s State of the Union address, Trump’s approval ratings have been running slightly ahead of where Barack Obama was at this stage of his presidency. 

COMMENT:  My own sense, from what I read and hear, is that people are getting used to the president's, uh, unusual style of leadership, his eccentricities, even his show-biz bravado.  They are looking more and more at what he does and what he stands for, and liking enough of it to give him a thumbs up.

This can change on a dime.  But if Mr. Trump continues to rise in popularity, it can have a dramatic effect on this year's midterm elections.

February 9,  2018     Permalink

FEBRUARY 8,  2018

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

EVIL – FROM FOX:  Left-wing billionaire George Soros is pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign looking to sabotage British voters’ 2016 decision to leave the European Union.  The U.K. Daily Telegraph first reported late Wednesday that Soros has delivered £400,000 ($560,000) to the anti-Brexit "Best for Britain" campaign via his Open Society Foundations.  He also hosted big-money donors at his London home as part of the group’s goal to raise support to nix the implementation of the Brexit referendum.   Best for Britain is currently led by Lord Mark Malloch-Brown -- a former diplomat and U.N. deputy secretary-general -- and is reportedly planning a massive ad campaign to push for a second referendum to make voters rethink the decision to leave the E.U.   The British people made the right choice.  They understood the danger posed by the European Union's dictatorial bureaucracy.  It's just the kind of dictatorship that the Soros crowd likes.  "We know what's good for you deplorables."  Soros is the ATM for nut jobs.

ENCOURAGING – FROM BREITBART:  Four million people dropped off the food stamp rolls in one month, according to the latest numbers on food stamp enrollment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).  The latest USDA data show that the number of participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the government program that administers food stamps, dropped from 45,666,795 in October 2017 to 41,658,868 in November 2017 — a staggering decrease of 4,007,927 over one month.  Even though there was a temporary spike in enrollment, mostly concentrated in a few states that caused the national average of food stamp enrollment to spike, nationwide enrollment in the program as a whole is still on a steady decline.  Good.  It's an encouraging sign when fewer people need food stamps.  It usually means that employment is rising.  Trump's economy is succeeding.

TRAVEL NEWS – FROM AP:  SEOUL:   South Korea — The plane carrying a high-level North Korean government delegation including leader Kim Jong Un’s sister has arrived in South Korea to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.  Kim Yo Jong will be the first member of North Korea’s ruling family to set foot in the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.  The North Korean officials during their three-day visit beginning Friday will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who’s trying to use the Olympics as an opportunity to pull North Korea into meaningful talks over its nuclear program.  Maybe she'll be smart, and defect.  Then she could send money home.

February 8, 2018       Permalink

WHAT HAVE WE HERE? – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:   Whenever I hear "personal reasons" I wonder just how personal the reasons are.  From Daily Caller: 

The Department of Justice official who interviewed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of the investigation into her emails is leaving the agency, he announced on Wednesday.

David Laufman, who leads the DOJ’s counterintelligence division, is leaving the DOJ for “personal reasons,” according to The Washington Post.

In addition to working on the investigation into Clinton’s handling of classified information, Laufman has also worked on the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

On the Clinton investigation, he sat in on interviews with the former secretary of state and several of her aides, including Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan.

He was joined in those interviews by Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who is currently embroiled in a scandal over politically charged text messages.

COMMENT:  One gets the feeling that the Republican investigators in Congress are, slowly but surely, getting to the heart of some very strange behavior that occurred during the Obama administration.  A key question is how much Obama knew.  I think Trey Gowdy and Devon Nunes will find out.

February 8, 2018       Permalink

MORE PROGRESS –  AT 11:16 A.M. ET:  The economy rolls along.  Don't tell the Democrats.  From Reuters: 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, dropping to its lowest level in nearly 45 years as the labor market tightened further, bolstering expectations of faster wage growth this year.

The second straight weekly decline in claims reported by the Labor Department on Thursday also pointed to strong job growth momentum, which could further drive the unemployment rate lower.

"The extremely low level of claims is a sign of tightness in the labor market and suggests that February is shaping up to be another solid month for job creation," said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 221,000 for the week ended Feb. 3, the Labor Department said. Claims fell to 216,000 in mid-January, which was the lowest level since January 1973.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 232,000 in the latest week. Last week marked the 153rd straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with a strong labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was much smaller.

The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The tighter labor market is starting to exert upward pressure on wage growth.

The Labor Department reported last week that average hourly earnings jumped 2.9 percent year-on-year in January, the largest gain since June 2009, after advancing 2.7 percent in December. Employers added 200,000 jobs to their payrolls last month.

COMMENT:  If this can be kept going, the political implications will be profound.  We are talking about control of the Congress, with all that implies, including confirmations of judges.

Rasmussen has Trump at 48%, higher than Obama was at this point in his presidency.  America is starting to be great again.

February 8, 2018       Permalink

YOU CAN'T MAKE IT UP – AT 10:44 A.M. ET:  The question is not whether Nancy Pelosi is crazy.   The question is, how crazy is she?  Remember, when she was speaker of the House she was two heartbeats away from the presidency.   From RealClearPolitics: 

During an extended speech on the House floor Wednesday morning, where she read a long list of profiles of DACA recipients, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was reminded of her own grandson.

Pelosi, who noted her Italian heritage, said her grandson comes from Irish, English, "whatever, whatever" descent. She added that he is a "mix."  Pelosi shared that when her grandson blew out the candles at his sixth birthday party he made a wish that he would have "brown skin and brown eyes" like his Hispanic friend Antonio.

NANCY PELOSI: I'm reminded of my own grandson. He is Irish, English, whatever, whatever, and Italian-American, he is a mix. But he looks more the other [Italian] side of the family, shall we say.
And when he had his sixth birthday... he had a very close friend whose name is Antonio, he's from Guatemala. And he has beautiful tan skin, beautiful brown eyes, and this was a proud day for me, because when my grandson blew out the candles on his cake, they said did you make a wish?
He said yes, he made a wish. What is your wish? I wish I had brown skin and brown eyes like Antonio.

So beautiful. So beautiful. The beauty is in the mix. The face of the future for our country is all-American. And that has many versions.

COMMENT:  Unbelievably patronizing.  If I were a member of a racial minority, I'd be deeply offended by Nancy – who's worth about $30-million – patronizing me like that.  Who does she think she's impressing?

February 8,  2018     Permalink