Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

JULY 11,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

BETRAYAL!! – FROM CAMPUS REFORM:   Students at Princeton University are outraged over an online job listing advertising a position with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  The controversial listing was featured on Handshake, a third-party recruiting platform provided to students by Princeton’s Career Service...According to the Princetonian, several Hispanic students discovered the job posting and found it controversial in light of Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.   Eva Kubu, the interim executive director of Princeton’s Career Services, told the newspaper that the job listing was originally posted by Handshake in the fall of 2017.  Samuel Santiago, a student at the school, came across the listing in late June, proclaiming in a Facebook post that “Handshake is helping ICE recruit Princeton University students to become Border Patrol Agents.”  I don't know what we do about something this serious. 

OUR WORST-RUN CITIES – FROM CBS LOCAL:  Washington D.C. may be the nation’s capitol, but a new survey is also calling it the “worst-run” city in America.  Personal finance website WalletHub has released its rankings for the worst big cities in the country and found that several high-profile places are at the bottom of the list when it comes to city management and operating efficiency.  Here are the 10 worst-run cities according to WalletHub’s July 9 release:  Washington D.C.; Detroit, Michigan; New York City; San Francisco; Gulfport, Mississippi;. Oakland, California; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Flint, Michigan; Cleveland;
and Hartford, Connecticut.   The presence of the Democratic Party is prominent on that list.

THE HORSE RACE – FROM BLOOMBERG:  Democrats turned out more voters overall than Republicans in 14 of the most competitive congressional districts that have had primaries so far, signaling the eagerness of the party’s base to confront Donald Trump in the first midterm election of his presidency.  While the turnout numbers are positive for the party, they don’t indicate a decisive edge in the November congressional elections that will determine whether Democrats gain a majority in the House.  The advantage also isn’t spread evenly. Democrats tallied more total votes than Republicans in just half of the 14 the districts, and they’ll need to win in many of those places to gain at least 23 U.S. House seats to take control of the chamber.  Republicans will have to fight harder than ever before to keep control of Congress.  Odds are they will keep the Senate, where judicial nominations are confirmed, but the House is in doubt.

July 11, 2018       Permalink

CINDERELLA HAS ARRIVED – AT 8:14 P.M. ET:  At least I think she has.  I refer, of course, to the new fairy-tale princess, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who won a Dem congressional nomination in New York by getting the votes of about eight percent of her district's registered Democrats.  A famous victory it was not, but you'd never know it from the scribblings of fawning journalists, taking a page direct from the "Obama come to save us" playbook.  From The Hill: 

Democrats are racing to figure out how to handle Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose primary win over a longtime incumbent is set to shake up the party’s Washington establishment.

I don't think they'll be shaken that quickly. 

Ocasio-Cortez’s shock victory over Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) made the 28-year-old an overnight sensation in the Big Apple and across the country, leading Democrats to bombard her with messages of congratulations and offers to cooperate in the future.

I guarantee you that most New Yorkers would not recognize her name. 

“The entire spectrum of House Democrats, party leadership, [campaign] leadership, is trying to assess what she wants to do and how ready she is to play ball,” said one Democratic source.
They want to know “how does her coming to Washington change my plan, or even help my plan?”

Democrats are largely thrilled to welcome the telegenic rising star to their ranks, though she is already ruffling some feathers.

Telegenic is the key word here.  She's attractive.  She's vibrant.  If she looked like Woody Allen and talked about socialism, the story would have been over in ten minutes.  And she certainly is rustling feathers.  It turned out her biography isn't quite as "poor girl makes good" as she first told us, some of her associations are troubling, and she really doesn't know what she's talking about.  She's getting her 15 minutes of fame.   Some in the press will cover for her.  But it's a manufactured story.

Ocasio-Cortez plans to hit the campaign trail for at least three other Democratic candidates in primary races this year who are backed by Justice Democrats, a PAC that supports progressives. 

Some of those "progressives" are actually regressive in their views, and are way outside the mainstream. 

Read the whole piece.  It's summer, and newspapers have to fill their columns with ink.

July 11, 2018       Permalink

THE JOURNEY – AT 11:44 A.M. ET:  Judge Brett Kavanaugh has started his journey toward a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate.  Soundings from his first day on the grand tour are pretty positive.  From The Hill:

With President Trump overseas, Vice President Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) — the designated Senate “sherpa” —  are guiding Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh around Capitol Hill in search of the 51 votes he needs for confirmation in the upper chamber.

Throughout the whirlwind day following Kavanaugh’s East Room debut, Senate Democrats faced an immovable fact: With only 49 seats in their caucus, they don’t have the votes to block the 53-year-old judge’s path to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.

The Hill tracked down three Democratic senators who are seeking reelection in November in states Trump carried in 2016 — Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.). How will they vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination? Each went out of their way to avoid reporters’ questions, but one Democratic senator was blunt:

“We have to lower the expectations of our base. We can’t defeat the nominee on our own.” – a Democratic senator who requested anonymity.

Instead, the goal of the Democrats, according to reporting by The Hill’s Alexander Bolton, is to “inflict as much political damage on the GOP as possible ahead of the November midterm elections.”

Liberal voters want Democratic senators to do more than delay and create temporary hurdles for Trump and Republicans. But if the Senate majority works together, Democrats are boxed in.

“If they keep all their votes together, there’s nothing we can do.” – Senate Democratic aide, speaking on background.

COMMENT:  I don't see what damage the Dems can inflict on the GOP over the Kavanaugh nomination.  This is a quality choice.  If the Democrats oppose Kavanaugh on principled grounds, and behave like adults, they might be able to improve their own sorry image, even as they are defeated in the nomination vote.  That would be a real accomplishment for a party that sometimes seems to think it's part of a student government.

July 11, 2018       Permalink

GREATNESS – AT 11:06 A.M. ET:  I often listen to music and research the composer, and, if a song, the lyricist, while listening.  I did that last night and realized that today is the 81st anniversary of the death of George Gershwin.  Gershwin died on this date in 1937, at the tragically young age of 38.

What a loss.  Had he lived even a normal life span, he would have left us in the 1970s.  We not only would have heard decades more of his music, we would have known him through television.

When we think of Gershwin we think of the pinnacle of American popular and theater music.  And we think of orchestral compositions like "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris."  We think of music that is civilized, with melodies we remember and pass on to our children.

In the the time Gershwin lived, teenagers danced to his music, and loved it.  Consider please, what kids are given today, not only in music, but in the lyrics that accompany it.  Melody?  What melody?  Lyrics?  Remember any?  I was in Staples a while back, and the store's sound system played a song with one line of lyric, repeated over and over.  Not exactly Rodgers and Hart. 

I think you can tell a great deal about a country by its popular music.  Ours has gone down the tubes, along with other elements of our popular culture. 

The superb songs, the ones that have lasted, are generally called The Great American Songbook, and some authorities say the songbook began about 1910 and ended in the early 1960s.  That doesn't mean fine songs weren't written after the 60s.  They were, but the number diminished rapidly.  The giant composers – Rodgers, Berlin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, and their peers, were retiring or passing on.  Johnny Mercer, one of our greatest lyricists, called the songwriters of the late sixties "child philosophers."  I'm afraid it fits.

Will there be another golden age of American music?  No one knows.   But it does strike me that the golden ages of American song, movies, theater, recording, and broadcasting, all occurred during roughly the same period.  I wonder why.  If you have any theories on that, let us know. 

Meanwhile, try to subscribe to one of the better streaming music services, and listen to the classic songs.  You'll love it.  Tell the kids.

July 11,  2018     Permalink

JULY 10,  2018

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

CYNTHIA, NOT DICK – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Cynthia Nixon on Tuesday proudly proclaimed herself a democratic socialist.  The actress-turned-candidate for governor explicitly embraced the democratic socialist label for the first time in a statement provided to Politico.  “Yes. Some more establishment, corporate Democrats get very scared by this term but if democratic socialism means that you believe health care, housing, education and the things we need to thrive should be a basic right not a privilege then count me in,” Nixon said in the statement.  Nixon, who is backed by the left-leaning Working Families Party, is challenging two-term incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Sept. 13 primary.  Another genius.

THE CHICKEN WINGS PLOT – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  Have you ever watched two men devour spicy chicken wings and been so affected by the absence of women that you wrote an academic paper about it?  If not, then you’re not as enlightened as the University of Tulsa’s Emily J.H. Contois.  The professor of media studies apparently sees toxic masculinity at work in the popular YouTube show Hot Ones, whose host and celebrity guest each eat a plate of hot wings “dressed with hot sauces of increasing intensity.”  Her research “examines how media representations of food, cooking, and dieting construct and negotiate masculinities in our current historical moment,” and Contois’s paper in Feminist Media Studies sees dark forces at work in the three-year-old web series produced by First We Feast.  I've worried about this, too.   You can never be too careful. 

BE OPTIMISTIC – FROM DAILYWIRE:  The two woman GOP senators who seemed recalcitrant about supporting President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court are hinting they will be fine supporting Trump’s actual nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.  According to Politico, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) were far less confrontational after Trump’s announcement Monday night than they had been with the possibility of Judge Amy Coney Barrett joining the Court.  Murkowski allowed, “Let’s put it this way: There were some who have been on the list that I would have had a very, very difficult time supporting, just based on what was already publicly known about them. We’re not dealing with that.”  Collins said she wouldn’t compare Kavanaugh to Barrett, then added, “It will be very difficult for anyone to argue that he’s not qualified for the job. He clearly is qualified for the job. But there are other issues involving judicial temperament and his political or rather his judicial philosophy that also will play into my decision.”  I think we're making progress.  Rational senators should be embarrassed if a man like Brett Kavanaugh cannot be confirmed.

July 10,  2018     Permalink

AND THEY'RE LOOKING AT THEIR PATHETIC CANDIDATES, TOO – AT 12:56 P.M. ET:   Yes, it's true.  Some Democrats are actually interested in finding a presidential candidate for 2020 who can actually win an election.  They are rare.  Some may be in museums.  A number are in cemeteries.  Maybe there's someone walkin' around.  From The Hill: 

Can Elizabeth Warren win back blue-collar Democrats from President Trump in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania?

It’s a question many Democrats are pondering as Warren — one of the leading contenders for her party’s presidential nomination, if she chooses to run in 2020 — goes back and forth with the president over immigration and other issues.

Warren (D-Mass.) has shown an ability to rally and excite progressives, she’s a proven fundraiser and she has policy bona fides from her work in the Senate.

Yet there are creeping doubts among some Democrats that she’s the best candidate to take on Trump.

Some worry the former Harvard professor will have a tough time winning back the Rust Belt centrists and independents who abandoned Hillary Clinton and Democrats for Trump.

“I just can’t see a blue-collar, Rust Belt guy voting for her,” said one Democratic strategist who has worked on presidential campaigns. “I think the party needs to be realistic about that.”

Some Democrats almost certainly remain shellshocked from the last election after Trump’s surprise win. He became the first Republican to win the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan in a presidential election since 1988 and the first Republican to win Wisconsin since President Reagan in 1984.

If Democrats don’t retake those states in 2020, their chances of winning the Electoral College will fall.

Teeth-gnashing over who is best-positioned to take on Trump, as a result, is already taking place ahead of the midterm elections.

Warren’s gender and her political identity as a voice on the left are both likely to be issues for primary voters sizing up Democratic candidates in potential head-to-head matchups with Trump.

Would she be stronger than former Vice President Joe Biden? What about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)? Does the party need the face of a new political generation, such as Sens. Kamala Harris (Calif.), Cory Booker (N.J.) or Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.)?

Warren has her advocates, who say the senator’s anti-corporate economic message will resonate with the types of voters who left the party for Trump.

COMMENT:  No it won't.  First, Trump's message wasn't anti-corporate.  It was "pro you."  Trump, with all his wealth, knew his voters.   He knew what they'd experienced.  He knew their fears.  Hillary Clinton not only didn't know them, she referred to them as "deplorables," the word that may have cost her the election.

Has Elizabeth Warren ever met anyone outside her group?  I doubt it.

There's a wonderful story told by Doris Kearns Goodwin (and other historians) about the day FDR died.  A reporter saw a soldier at the White House gate, just looking at the presidential mansion, with tears in his eyes.  The reporter asked the soldier, "Did you know him?"  "No," the soldier replied, "but he knew me."

And that's what wins elections.  That connection.  That ability to reach people inside.

Elizabeth Warren?  I don't think so.  And you can throw in Kamala Harris and our own local candidate, Kirsten Gillibrand.  They're faculty lounge, not the local eatery.

July 10, 2018       Permalink

THE MORNING AFTER – AT 12:18 P.M. ET:  What an amusing morning, going over the reactions to the president's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the high court.  I say, send free bottles of Zoloft to those on the left who just can't control the depth of their emotions. 

Actually, I have noticed a bit of thought on the part of some Dems.  True, it's a trifle, like the weak heartbeat of a very sick guy, but it's something.  And some Dems are showing at least a slice of common sense.  Maybe they watched a Netflix documentary of the Democratic Party of Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy.  From The Hill: 

Senate Democratic candidates are breaking with progressives who are calling for the abolishment of ICE.

The push to nix Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has gained steam among the party’s resurgent liberal base in response President Trump’s immigration policies that led to the separation of thousands of immigrant families along the U.S.-Mexico border.

House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez brought the issue into the national spotlight with her shocking defeat of Rep. Joseph Crowley (D) in last month’s New York primary. And some of the party’s 2020 presidential hopefuls, including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), have rallied behind the effort to dismantle ICE.

But Democratic candidates locked in tight races that will likely determine which party controls the Senate next year are stopping short of embracing the idea as they try to win over moderate voters.
“No, I don’t think we should,” Sen. Bill Nelson (Fla.), a vulnerable Democrat seeking reelection, said on Monday when asked if he agreed with calls to abolish ICE.

And it’s not just Senate incumbents who are unwilling to commit to scrapping the agency.
Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), a progressive lawmaker hoping to defeat Sen. Dean Heller (R), isn’t endorsing the push to abolish ICE.

When asked about the issue on Monday, a spokeswoman for her campaign pointed to a recent CNN interview, where Rosen said ICE “does a lot of other things people don’t realize,” and Congress should instead “ask the president to stop his reckless and harmful policies right now.”

A spokesperson for Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who’s running to fill the seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Jeff Flake, didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday. But the Democratic Senate hopeful told an Arizona TV station last week that getting rid of ICE “isn’t realistic and doesn’t make sense.”

COMMENT:  Well, it's a start, I guess.  But these voices of caution will probably be shouted down pretty quickly over their political treason.  The party has become frightening.

July 10,  2018     Permalink