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JANUARY 3,  2018

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

DAMNING STAEMENT – FROM PJ MEDIA:   In light of the current Iran protests, Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told CNN that President Barack Obama should have supported the 2009 Green movement protesters in Iran.  CNN's Jake Tapper asked Panetta about the 2009 protests in an interview Tuesday evening. "Do you think the Obama administration dropped the ball by not more aggressively standing with the protesters, whether on its own or in congress with our European allies and others?"  Panetta, who directed the CIA during the protests and later served as Obama's secretary of defense from 2011 to 2013, essentially said yes.  "Well, I remember that — that movement. It was a much larger protest than what we’re having today," Panetta said. "It was based on the Green Party and what happened in the election then."  "I do think that was an appropriate time for the United States to have sent a clearer message that we stand by those who try to represent the rights of people. That’s what the United States is all about. And it would have been important to have sent that message at the time," he concluded.  Panetta was one of the few sound, mature voices in the Obama administration, and he was actually pro-American.  His advice wasn't followed.

WHO NEEDS THINKING? – FROM NEWS.COM.AU:  Software adapted from the medical profession is translating a driver’s thoughts into action to improve vehicle responsiveness. The technology will be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week.  The software monitors brain wave activity to anticipate intended movement, be that turning the steering wheel or hitting the brakes. Nissan says the system can react between 0.2-0.5 second faster than the driver without being considered intrusive.
The B2V technology is meant to make driving more enjoyable in a semi-autonomous world by speeding up reaction times and having vehicles that constantly adapt to their owner’s driving style.  Nissan vice-president Daniele Schillaci says the software takes connectivity to the next level.  They're taking all the fun out of it.  I want to go back to hand-cranked cars.

AND ANOTHER ONE – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   The political director of CBS News was fired after the company received allegations that he engaged in “inappropriate behavior” in the past.
Steve Chaggaris was canned by the network after they investigated allegations that recently came to their attention, the company said on Wednesday night.  “In the last two weeks, accounts of inappropriate behavior by Steve Chaggaris were brought to our attention and were immediately investigated,” read a statement from a CBS spokesperson.  “As a result, CBS News has severed ties with Mr. Chaggaris for violating company policy, effective immediately.”  It was not clear Wednesday night what the specifics of the allegations were.  Again, the guy may be a jerk and the charges all true.  But what charges?  When does he get his defense?  Who's conducting these secret "investigations"?  There's a sense of unfairness.

January 3,  2018     Permalink

POLITICAL WAR – AT 2:05 P.M. ET:  President Trump and his former political strategist Steve Bannon are now at war, and it is bound to become very ugly.  Trump clearly wants to destroy Bannon before Bannon destroys Trump.  From Bloomberg:   

President Donald Trump denounced his former top strategist, Steve Bannon, on Wednesday, saying that he “lost his mind” after leaving the White House last summer.

“When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Trump said of Bannon in a statement the White House issued. “Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look.”

The statement represented an emphatic break from the person considered the architect of Trump’s presidential campaign. Bannon continued to enjoy access to the president after he left the White House, but that has ended, one person familiar with the matter said.

Earlier on Wednesday, New York Magazine published excerpts of a forthcoming book by author Michael Wolff in which Bannon criticizes Trump’s campaign as well as the president and his family.

The Guardian published excerpts of the book in which Bannon predicts that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will “crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV” over the president’s son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016.

Bannon also called Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with the lawyer, in which he expected to receive damaging information on Trump’s election opponent Hillary Clinton, “treasonous” and “unpatriotic,” according to the Guardian.

COMMENT:  This is not fun.  Other presidential advisers have split with their man in the Oval Office, but this split seems especially bitter and mean-spirited.

Stop it guys,  You're hurting yourselves, the country, and the party.  You're starting to sound like Democrats, which is not a compliment.

January 3,  2018     Permalink

FROM A TRUE SCHOLAR – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  Walter Williams, the distinguished African-American professor at George Mason, is often ignored by the mainstream media, as he won't follow the approved party line.  But he is insightful and brilliant about America's declining educational standards.  From College Fix:   

When stacked up against other developed countries, the educational attainment of America’s students falls short.

For instance, the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment found that the average science, math and reading scores of U.S. students who took the assessment ranked behind several other nations.

What’s to blame for such figures? There are likely a number of factors, but in a recent column, one prominent scholar argues the “low academic quality” of America’s teachers is one critical downfall of our nation’s education system.

In a column published by Creators Syndicate, George Mason University economics professor Walter Williams writes the poor quality of teachers is “an issue that must be confronted and dealt with if we’re to improve the quality of education.”

As proof of the “low bar” set for today’s teachers, Williams highlights a few questions from teacher certification tests in various states:

From the column:

The Arizona teacher certification test asks: “Janet can type 250 words in 5 minutes, what is her typing rate per minute? a. 50wpm, b. 66wpm, c. 55wpm, d. 45wpm.”

The California Basic Educational Skills Test asks the test taker to find the verb in the following sentence: “The interior temperatures of even the coolest stars are measured in millions of degrees. a. Coolest, b. Of even, c. Are measured, d. In millions.” A California Basic Educational Skills Test math question is: “You purchase a car making a down payment of $3,000 and 6 monthly payments of $225. How much have you paid so far for the car? a. $3225, b. $4350, c. $5375, d. $6550, e. $6398.”

In addition to easy certification tests, Williams also argues that education departments at American colleges are often the weakest programs in higher education. He writes that education programs often draw students with low test scores and academic achievement. Williams asserts America’s education system would be better off without such programs.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing.  The decline in this country's educational system, starting in higher education, but extending down to elementary school, can be fatal to the nation.  This is an age of science, an age of the knowledge society.  But our educational standards are declining, and educational institutions often seem more like indoctrination centers than intellectual destinations.

We'll be doing more on this.

January 3, 2018       Permalink

CONFUSION IN IRAN – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  Very hard to get accurate information out of Iran, and some news organizations are eagerly losing interest.  The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has just announced "the end of the sedition," but we have no verification.

Today's most visible demonstrations were pro-regime, no doubt arranged by the regime itself.  Meanwhile, President Trump is pledging further aid to the revolutionaries.  From Fox:

President Trump doubled down on his support for Iranian protesters Wednesday morning, assuring that at the “appropriate time” they would see aid from the United States.

“Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!” Trump tweeted.

The president initially posted a tweet that described Iran as a “corrupt and poorly run country,” but then deleted the tweet, changing his statement to “corrupt government,” as opposed to the country as a whole.

Protests have rocked the Islamic Republic for nearly a week, leaving at least 21 people dead. At least 450 have been arrested in protests that have spread from Tehran to cities throughout the Muslim nation, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported.

The Iranian regime has moved to squash protests by cutting off communication and moving to block social media platforms, as it did nine years ago during the “Green Movement” of 2009.

The State Department announced Tuesday that it would use Facebook and Twitter to communicate directly with Iranian protesters, posting in Farsi on the social media platforms.

The decision to do so came after the Iranian government shut off access to Instagram as well as Telegram, a popular messaging app used by activists to organize demonstrations.

In 2009, the Iranian regime did the same, as the nation was rocked by protests and restricted social media platforms.

COMMENT:  We need further clarification on exactly what is happening.  At this writing there is absoluely no "new" news coming out of Iran, and it's getting to be nightfall there.  Is it possible that the rebellion has actually been broken?  We're watching carefully.

January 3,  2018     Permalink 

JANUARY 2,  2018

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

REALITY – FROM REUTERS:   NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City will install more than 1,500 new barrier posts on sidewalks and plazas to protect pedestrians from vehicles after at least two instances last year of drivers killing people after mounting the curb, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday.  The thin, cylindrical, waist-height metal bollards are intended to be a more attractive alternative to the hulking concrete blocks the New York Police Department had deposited in busier areas around the city following the vehicle attacks, de Blasio said.  “We understand what’s happening around the world and we even saw some tragedies here,” the mayor said at a Times Square announcement in front of a line of the posts. Similar bollards were installed in Times Square in 2016.  The mayor is an old leftist, who arranged to be sworn in Monday by Bernie Sanders.  But he wants to run for president in 2020, and is trying to show a tougher image.  Won't work.

NOT GOOD, NOT JUST – FROM PAGE SIX:    The federal grand jury handing down indictments for special counsel Robert Mueller doesn’t appear to include any supporters of President Donald Trump, according to one witness who recently testified before the panel.  “The grand jury room looks like a Bernie Sanders rally,” my source said. “Maybe they found these jurors in central casting, or at a Black Lives Matter rally in Berkeley [Calif.]”  Of the 20 jurors, 11 are African-Americans and two were wearing “peace T-shirts,” the witness said. “There was only one white male in the room, and he was a prosecutor.” Mueller was not present.  The Washington, DC, grand jury, which meets only on Fridays, handed down its first indictments in October, charging Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and his partner Rick Gates with money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents. The two are pleading not guilty.
Mueller’s team is expected to bring more charges against Manafort relating to his work on behalf of the Ukrainian government in the years before Trump became a candidate.  Sol Wachtler, the former chief judge in New York, once called for abolishing grand juries because they are so easily manipulated that they would “indict a ham sandwich.”  It is not wrong to bring up the backgrounds of grand jurors, or any jurors for that matter.  We correctly abolished all-white juries in this country because they were often blatantly discriminatory.  The same can be said of other juries that represent other groups or neighborhoods.  The jury system is imperfect.  I am deeply concerned about any charges against the Trump people that are brought to a District of Columbia grand jury.  I would much prefer northern Virginia, where more balance can be achieved.

AH, THE BEAUTY OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE – FROM DAILY MAIL:  Tens of thousands of pre-planned operations could be postponed in January as hospitals battle severe winter pressures.  In a drastic step to try to free up hospital staff and beds, NHS England urged hospitals to defer day-case procedures and routine outpatient appointments until January 31.  To help free up doctors for patients with the most urgent need, the body also said the deferral of non-urgent inpatient elective care - such as hip replacements - should be extended until January 31.  Officials have estimated that this could lead to up to 55,000 deferred operations.  Cancer operations and time-critical procedures should go ahead as planned, NHS England said.
The move comes after leading medics warned that every emergency department in the country is struggling to cope with winter pressures.  Some hospitals have declared themselves at the most severe pressure level while doctors warned that scores are operating at almost full capacity.  Meanwhile a number of ambulance services are also under severe pressure, with two even resorting to taxis to ferry patients to hospital.  Strange, we have winter here, and I'm not reading stories like this about American hospitals.  I wonder why.

January 2,  2018     Permalink 

HATCH TO RETIRE; ROMNEY AS SENATOR? – AT 5:05 P.M. ET:  Orrin Hatch, ancient senator from Utah, will not run for re-election this year.  Will Mitt Romney , a Republican critic of the president, run for the seat and possibly make another bid for president in 2020?  From CNBC:

Orrin Hatch, currently the second-longest serving U.S. senator, plans to retire at the end of his term.
In a video shared on Twitter, the 83-year-old Utah Republican announced his plan to leave the Senate early next year after more than 40 years. Hatch's announcement came just a little more than a week after the Republican tax plan that he helped to craft was signed into law.

President Donald Trump had urged Hatch, the Senate Finance Committee chairman, to seek re-election later this year. Hatch showered Trump with praise during and after Congress' passage of its tax bill, setting himself apart from some GOP senators who criticized the president's actions or fitness for office this year.

In the video, Hatch said he was "deeply grateful" to serve as a senator and said "the next chapter in my public service is just beginning."

And...

Former Massachusetts Gov. and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney was considering running for Hatch's seat if the senator retired, according to reports. Romney has strongly criticized Trump and could prove another irritant to the president if elected.

Romney lives in Utah and is popular in the state. He will be 71 at the time of this year's midterm elections.

In a statement Tuesday, Romney thanked Hatch but did not address whether he plans to run for the seat.

"Senator Hatch has represented the interests of Utah with distinction and honor," he said in a Facebook post.

COMMENT:  If Romney runs, I'd imagine Trump would find a way to endorse him, even if it's a cold endorsement.  Romney should have no great difficulty winning the seat as Utah is ultra-Republican.  Then he would have to decide whether to mount a primary challenge against Trump in 2020, or against Mike Pence if Trump is no longer president.

January 2, 2018       Permalink

COMMON SENSE ON IRAN – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  Voices from the Obama administration are already out in the media advising that we remain silent about the Iranian protesters.  You know, do just what Barack did when Iranians revolted in 2009...as if that were somehow successful.  (To liberals, nothing succeeds like failure.)   

Benny Avni, a true veteran observer of the Mideast, sees it quite differently, as does President Trump.  From the New York Post: 

Like New Yorkers, Iranians were out on the streets over New Year’s — except rather than braving ever-dropping temperatures, they faced tear gas, nasty riot cops and bullets.

Think we’ve seen this before? Wrong.

The ongoing days of rage (five and counting) are remarkably different than the failed protest in the aftermath of the rigged 2009 Iranian election.

They may signal the start of an evil regime’s downfall and reshape the entire Mideast.

But Iranians need our help.

And...

They chant, “No Syria, no Gaza, we’d die only for Iran.” And “Reformists, traditionalists, you’re all the same.” Even “Down with the dictator,” accompanied by the destruction of posters of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

This, in other words, is about regime change.

And there’s another crucial difference between 2009 and today. Back then, President Barack Obama was secretly planning to launch talks with the regime. When the Green Revolution threatened to undermine his overtures, he mostly stayed mum.

And guess what? Over the weekend Philip Gordon, an architect of Obama’s Mideast policies, wrote in a widely echoed op-ed we should “do nothing” now, too.

His argument: Iran’s leaders would claim a US-Zionist plot. Let’s exercise some humility. This is about Iranians, not us.

Yet, Cold War dissidents like Natan Sharansky say President Ronald Reagan’s encouragement helped them survive the Soviet regime. Now as the veteran Farsi-language broadcaster Menashe Amir tells me, the current uprising needs international, and specifically American, encouragement to survive the regime’s onslaught.

And...

Do nothing? Absurd. America should amp-up encouragement to protesters. Europeans, so quick to jump on any human-rights bandwagon but decisively quiet about the rights of Iranians, should be shamed into joining in.

And this is no time for a regime lifesaver. Rather than ease sanctions, America should reiterate to Europeans, Asians and others that they can either do business with the clerical oppressors or with us, but not both.

Regime change has always been our best option for dealing with Iran’s America-hating genocidal dictators bent on possessing nuclear weapons.

Rather than doing nothing, we should side with those in Iran who share that goal.

The Islamic Republic may not fall tomorrow, but as in the Cold War, oppressive regimes rarely last forever no matter how stable they look to outsiders.

And just like then, we have an important role as catalyst in their demise.

COMMENT:  Right on.  I think Benny nails it.  I would trust Trump's instincts on this, remembering that all the "experts" urged that Ronald Reagan never utter the words, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"  He ignored those "experts" and the wall came down.

January 2, 2018       Permalink

BE CAREFUL! – AT 11:29 A.M. ET:  The North Korean regime, apparently feeling the heat from President Trump, is making overtures to the South Korean government.  That government is known to go wobbly, using Margaret Thatcher's phrase, and does not have the spine of the Trump administration.  From Fox: 

South Korea on Tuesday proposed high-level talks with North Korea to strategize ways to cooperate during the upcoming Winter Olympics, the olive branch coming after Kim Jong Un expressed a desire to send his own athletes to the games — which the South’s sports minister said could usher in peace and prosperity on the peninsula after a year of nuclear war threats.

South Korea’s unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon, during a nationally televised news conference, suggested the two rival countries meet on Jan. 9 at the shared border village of Panmunjom to discuss Olympic cooperation and how to improve overall ties.

"We hope that South and North Korea will sit down to discuss the North's participation in the games and ways to improve inter-Korean ties in a frank manner," Cho said, according to Yonhap News Agency. "The government has a willingness to have dialogue with the North regardless of timing, place and format.”

North Korea has not responded to the South’s proposal. Kim said during his New Year’s Day address he is willing to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang — to be held between Feb. 9 and 25 — and “sincerely” hoped the games “will be a success.” It was the first time the despot expressed some interest in sending athletes to the games after repeated calls from South Korea.

COMMENT:  It's a time for caution.  The North does nothing out of the goodness of its heart.  It wants something, maybe a respite from the constant American pressure, and it knows there are those in South Korea who would sell America down the river for a phony peace treaty.

Keep up the pressure.  Keep our naval forces in place.  Make clear that nothing changes unless the North gives up its nuclear and missile programs.  Ignore all advice from the Obama appeasers.

January 2,  2018     Permalink