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JULY 13,  2018

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

NEXT VACATION – FROM CNBC:  SEATTLE, July 12 (Reuters) - Jeff Bezos's rocket company plans to charge passengers about $200,000 to $300,000 for its first trips into space next year, two people familiar with its plans told Reuters.  Potential customers and the aerospace industry have been eager to learn the cost of a ticket on Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle, to find out if it is affordable and whether the company can generate enough demand to make a profit on space tourism.  Executives at the company, started by Amazon.com Inc founder Bezos in 2000, told a business conference last month they planned test flights with passengers on the New Shepard soon, and to start selling tickets next year.  They throw in lunch and a bag of peanuts. 

MUCH ADO ABOUT...? – You heard the announcement today that a number of Russian intelligence operatives have been indicted for trying to interfere with our 2016 elections.  First, the announcement, coming only three days before the President Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin, was grossly inappropriate.  Appearances are important, and the timing looked like an attempt to disrupt the meeting or embarrass the president.  Aside from that, I'm weary of journalists and others being shocked, shocked, that the Russkies attempted to tamper with our vote.  It's wrong, of course, but it's been going on through one method or another for decades.  It usually takes the form of attempts to influence voters through fake-news programs.  And the Russians aren't the only culprits.  The Brits ran major influence campaigns to try to get pre-Pearl Harbor America involved in World War II.  The Saudis are always active.  The Israelis are masters.  It's a kind of international pastime.  We can protest, we have to keep our guard up, but let's not get carried away with overwrought displays of anguish.

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT SPACE – FROM BLOOMBERG:  (Bloomberg) -- NASA’s administrator is a strong defender of President Donald Trump’s proposals for space -- including an armed force and a permanent presence on the moon -- and says he wants Americans to realize how much their well-being depends on what happens far above Earth.  “Every banking transaction requires a GPS signal for timing,” Jim Bridenstine said in an interview. “You lose the GPS signal and guess what you lose? You lose banking.”  “If you look at what space is, it’s not that much different than the ocean,” added Bridenstine, who made 333 aircraft-carrier landings as a Navy pilot. “It’s an international domain that has commerce that needs to be protected.”  This administration is serious about space, reversing the sleepy attitude of the Obama administration.  Obama once told his NASA head that the mission of NASA was Muslim outreach.  Not any longer. 

July 13, 2018       Permalink

TRUMP IN BRITAIN – AT 7:46 A.M. ET:   President Trump, king of the insult, emperor of the undiplomatic gesture, is in Great Britain, which prides itself on pomp, circumstance, and smooth diplomacy.   Trump is not popular in Britain, but thus far any protests have been muted.  Piers Morgan gives a sharp analysis of this unusual American president.  From Fox: 

English journalist Piers Morgan reacted to his country's public displays of protest against President Donald Trump and its love for former President Barack Obama.

"He's a rare president," Morgan, editor-in-chief of Daily Mail, said. "[Trump has] a complete revulsion of what he sees as conventional political posturing."

Morgan also told Martha MacCallum that Obama is seen as a "saintly figure" in much of the United Kingdom, while many detest Trump.

However, Morgan invited Britons to take a closer look at their love for Obama: "He deported three million illegal immigrants... [and] kept Guantanamo Bay open for eight years."

"If [Britons] actually looked at him pragmatically, what did he actually achieve?" Morgan asked.

He said that Obama's tenure was "massively overhyped" as much as Trump's has been the reverse.

Morgan said that, much like the United States is polarized between the liberal coasts and more conservative Middle America, Britain becomes less progressive as you move north from liberal London.

MacCallum noted that London is where much of the anti-Trump protests are taking place.

Morgan said that Trump is definitively honored to be meeting Queen Elizabeth II, who he said was one of the president's Scotch-born mother Mary's "idols."

COMMENT:  Well said.  The overhyped Obama, interestingly enough, is kind of fading away in the United States.  Do you hear him mentioned much?  Do people weep over his absence?  For eight years Barack Obama set American back.  The jury is out on Trump, but the man is getting things done, and he certainly fights for us.

I hope he doesn't insult the Queen, or offer to redo her palace at a discount.  Other than that, what can go wrong?

July 13, 2018        Permalink

I LOVE IT – AT 7:31 A.M. ET:  Don't you love it when Republicans think strategically?  Don't blink.  You might miss it, but occasionally it happens.  From AP:

Republican leaders are moving toward having a House vote on liberal Democratic legislation to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The campaign-season vote would be aimed at embarrassing Democrats. Many Democrats consider the measure a miscalculation that could help Republicans paint Democratic candidates as extreme.

Washington state Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal is a sponsor and says its backers will vote "no."

She says the measure is aimed at focusing attention on the issue, not actually eliminating the agency.

Liberal activists consider ICE a symbol of harsh immigration policies by President Donald Trump.

A GOP aide said No. 3 House Republican leader Steve Scalise got strong backing Thursday when he suggested having the vote.

COMMENT:  Good move by the GOP.  The fact that the Dems plan to vote "no" simply demonstrates their cynicism and dishonesty.   Of course they really want to vote "yes," but are afraid of being called soft on crime.  The farce will be detected, and Republicans will use it.

Oh, by the way, Rep. Pramila Jayapal is from Seattle and is a committed socialist.  As we've noted, it's becoming the rage in the Democratic Party.  Gets you invited to the best parties in Cuba.

July 13,  2018     Permalink

JULY 12,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:04 P.M. ET: 

DUE PROCESS?  WHAT A STRANGE CONCEPT? – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   For too long, colleges and universities have ignored the sacred American principle of due process, refusing to allow students accused of sexual offenses to confront and cross-examine their accusers. That may be changing, however: Just recently U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow ruled that, at the University of Michigan, a student who has been accused of rape must be allowed to confront the alleged victim as part of a “live hearing.”  Oh dear.  An actual hearing?  With rules that respect civilized concepts of law?  Is this the end of "safe spaces"?  I sure hope so.

THE MAN STANDS CONDEMNED – FROM DAILYWIRE:   According to the Left, Brett Kavanaugh is unqualified for the Supreme Court not because he lacks the credentials or even because he's conservative, but rather for the intersectional crime of being straight, white, and male.  Even though the Left fervently opposed the nomination of Justice Clarence Thomas to the point of slandering his good name and would have raged against whomever President Trump nominated no matter their color or sex, leftists from late-night to the NY Daily News are all saying that Brett Kavanaugh is just 50 shades too white for the SCOTUS job.  Over at CBS, Stephen Colbert joked that Kavanaugh passed President Trump's "white guy bingo" for the nomination.  Pulling a BINGO card from his pocket, Colbert exclaimed, "You see, all the squares say 'white guy.'"  Jimmy Kimmel played the exact same hand over at ABC, saying that Kavanaugh was the "white man for the job" after President Trump narrowed the picks.  Do these so-called "comedians" understand that they're not funny?  That they do damage?  That they increase racism, rather than diminish it?  When I worked on The Tonight Show, in the Carson years, we thought "entertainment" and "comedy."  Politics only played a role when we could legitimately laugh at something happening.  Johnny kept the show in line, and lasted 30 years.

FAMILY PORTRAITS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME – FROM AFP:  Paris (AFP) - New Zealand scientists have performed the first-ever 3-D, colour X-ray on a human, using a technique that promises to improve the field of medical diagnostics, said Europe's CERN physics lab which contributed imaging technology.  The new device, based on the traditional black-and-white X-ray, incorporates particle-tracking technology developed for CERN's Large Hadron Collider, which in 2012 discovered the elusive Higgs Boson particle.  "This colour X-ray imaging technique could produce clearer and more accurate pictures and help doctors give their patients more accurate diagnoses," said a CERN statement.  Soon they'll develop makeup for organs.

July 12, 2018       Permalink

IT'S ALL THE RAGE – AT 4:14 P.M. ET:  Socialism I mean.  Come and get it!  Free this, free that.  Just trade in those useless freedoms. 

It's the rage among Democrats.  A great day is coming. Just bring your backpack and fill it up.

What's happened?  For our quote of the day, we turn to Jonah Goldberg, who, I think, nails it.  From Fox: 

National Review writer Jonah Goldberg said the increasing trend of young people embracing socialism and far-left policies is partially attributable to the fact they have little memory of the Cold War.

The number-four House Democrat was recently unseated by a 28-year-old socialist Democrat from The Bronx, N.Y. in a district where the Republican economics professor she faces in November is a long shot to beat her.

"The Cold War is so far behind us... that socialism has lost its connotation and association with the rivers of blood that were spilled in its name," Goldberg said, after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens) in New York's 14th Congressional District primary.

Goldberg said on "The Story" that prominent socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont plays up socialism as "basically... in favor of all nice things."

"Economics shouldn't be about trade-offs, it shouldn't be about cost," Goldberg said of how Sanders and his followers view the subject.

Goldberg said a troubling aspect of Ocasio-Cortez' brand of socialism is that she is "basically an open-borders socialist."

"You can't have a view that everybody is welcome here no matter what... and still have any chance of handing out any of these goodies [that you promise]," he said.

COMMENT:   Well said.  A talented actress friend of mine observes that the young generation has never seen strife.  She's right.  They haven't had to meet the great challenges, the threat of death, the specter of extermination.  They've been handed educations based on leftist politics and low standards.

The cultural chickens are indeed coming home to roost.

July 12, 2018       Permalink

WHERE THE PRESIDENT STANDS – AT 10:17 A.M. ET:   The president seems to be in a polling rut.  He did recover from his recent decline during the "family separation" non-scandal, but he only rose to about 48% in Rasmussen, and stayed there.  This week, despite the Kavanaugh nomination, he has slipped a bit more.  From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-two percent (52%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 31% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 44% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -13.

COMMENT:  Polls are snapshots in time.  It is summer.  Many people aren't focused on politics.  We don't know what the numbers really mean.  But the president must start gaining again if he is to lead his party to victory in the November midterms, now only four months away.

The Dems and the media will throw everything they have at Trump.  I'd like to see his numbers five points higher.

July 12, 2018       Permalink

THE REALITY – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  A good illustration of how dangerous it is to speak out on behalf of conservatives on an American college campus.  From Fox: 

A liberal law professor who taught Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh in college received harsh backlash for writing an opinion editorial in the New York Times that defended the jurist.

Akhil Reed Amar, who teaches at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., wrote that Kavanaugh is more than qualified for the Supreme Court bench.

Amar told Brian Kilmeade on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" that he challenges anyone to find a better name on President Trump's list.

He said that he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and wanted Judge Merrick Garland to replace Justice Scalia, but that under the American two-party system, the Republicans are in power and therefore will nominate someone they like to replace Justice Kennedy.

Kilmeade said GQ Magazine crudely slammed Amar's arguments for Kavanaugh, and other left-wing publications also ripped the professor.

"Maybe [the blowback] was a little more than I expected," Amar said. "But I love the fact this country has robust uninhibited debate."

Amar said Kavanaugh has made some mistakes but that a good judge has made mistakes in his past and admits them.

COMMENT:  Many professors are reluctant to get involved in this viciousness.  I know one distinguished scholar who told me that when he makes a speech defending a conservative or pro-American cause he gets calls from other faculty members saying things like "Thank you for saying what I'm afraid to say."

It's that bad.  It's a new McCarthyism.  And a good part of the press is on the side of the McCarthyites.

July 12,  2018     Permalink