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NOVEMBER 26,  2016

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

TRUMP BLASTS RECOUNT EFFORT – FROM AP: WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- For months Donald Trump called the presidential election "rigged." The president-elect has a different word - "scam" - for the recount effort aimed at revisiting the vote in three pivotal battleground states.  "The people have spoken and the election is over," Trump declared Saturday in his first comments about the growing effort to force recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He added, "We must accept this result and then look to the future."  Trump is right.  A recount is called for if the vote tally is very close or if tampering is seriously suspected.  No one has shown, so far, that there were any serious irregularities.  Yet, I'd take any recount seriously, for then we have to watch the recounters for any sign of corruption or intimidation.

MISSING IRANIAN RADIOACTIVE DEVICE – FROM OILPRICE.COM:   The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is concerned over a missing radioactive device from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor, Saudi-owned Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday.  Aside from the security concerns, at the forefront in the GCC’s mind is what impact the radioactive device—wherever it may be today—could have on water supplies.  According to the newspaper, the device went missing after the car transporting it was stolen. Thankfully, the vehicle was recovered, but the radioactive nuclear device was not so lucky.  The GCC has contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the incident—both organizations are concerned that Iran’s nuclear program may pollute the waters in the Gulf, Asharq al-Awsat quoted GCC Emergency Management Center chairman, Adnan al-Tamimi, as saying.  Another brick on the load.  I'm not sure we actually known what's happening in Iran.  But nuclear devices are not supposed to go missing.

NUT CASE – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  Green Party perennial presidential hopeful Jill Stein praised former Cuban strongman Fidel Castro on Saturday, as encomiums by many left-of-center politicians continued to roll in following his death.  "Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire. Presente!" Stein wrote on Twitter Saturday afternoon.  Stein is also, as readers know, the instigator of the campaign to recount the presidential vote in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.  She is a specialist in nutty causes.  She needs help, and I think Obamacare should pay for it.  It's the least we can do for the unhinged.

November 26, 2016       Permalink 

AND AT COLUMBIA... – AT 1:06 P.M. ET:  Even at liberal Columbia, some are speaking out in ways that were rare just months ago, before the Trump election.  From the Washington Times:   

A humanities professor at Columbia University in New York City says Donald Trump’s presidential win should signal the end of liberal identity politics.

Speaking with NPR Friday morning, Mark Lilla argued that Mr. Trump’s election victory was due to American voters being “disaffected with the liberal message.”

“Democrats have simply lost the country,” he said. “They have lost the capacity to speak to the vast middle of America, an America that is, in large part, white, very religious and not highly educated.
“Ever since Reagan, [Republicans have] been able to capture the message and an understanding — or persuade people of a certain understanding of what the nation is about and what’s good for it,” he added.

Mr. Lilla, author of “The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction,” described identity liberalism as “expressive rather than persuasive.”

“It’s about recognition and self-definition,” he said. “It’s narcissistic. It’s isolating. It looks within. And it also makes two contradictory claims on people. It says, on the one hand, you can never understand me because you are not exactly the kind of person I’ve defined myself to be. And on the other hand, you must recognize me and feel for me. Well, if you’re so different that I’m not able to get into your head and I’m not able to experience or sympathize with what you experience, why should I care?

“To take one example,” he continued, “the whole issue of bathrooms and gender — in this particular election, when the stakes were so high, the fact that Democrats and liberals, more generally, lost a lot of political capital on this issue that frightened people. People were misinformed about certain things, but it was really a question of where young people would be going to the bathroom and where they would be in lockers. Is that really the issue we want to be pushing leading up to a momentous election like this one? It’s that shortsightedness that comes from identity politics.”

COMMENT:  Wonderfully said.  Read the whole piece.  Professor Lilla is already being accused of racism, and I hope he survives the ordeal to come.  We need more like him.

November 26, 2016       Permalink

AT LIBERAL HARVARD, OUR SIDE STRIKES BACK – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  There is conservative pushback in the world of "higher" education, and Trump's election may well embolden non-liberals to take up the fight.  One woman at Harvard is already in action.  From College Fix: 

What is it like being a conservative at Harvard?

“Difficult,” said government major Emily Hall.

Many of her professors have displayed overt liberal biases in the classroom, and often her fellow students are not willing to engage in meaningful debate, Hall said.

“A recent survey revealed that more undergraduates identify as socialist than as conservative,” she told The Fix, adding one of the institution’s nicknames is even “Kremlin on the Charles.”

And...

But Hall – who was valedictorian of her high school class – is not one to shy away from challenges.

Frustrated with a lack of intellectual diversity, Hall took action. She recently founded a Network of Enlightened Women chapter at Harvard, and has become more outspoken about her conservative beliefs on campus, she said.

NeW is a national organization that helps empower women to defend and promote conservative and free market principles on their liberal campuses.

“Founding a chapter here has helped us to create a space for conservatives, particularly conservative women, to come together and discuss the often overwhelming liberalism that we face each day,” she said.

And...

“I hope that as our chapter grows, we can also bring speakers to campus that will expose much of the student body to ideas that may be antithetical to their own, but can also open their minds to diverse viewpoints and lead them to give conservative political thought a chance,” Hall said.

COMMENT:  Good for Emily Hall.   I hope the hard left at Harvard doesn't try to short-circuit her, which happens often to conservatives.  The usual method is to shout down speakers or attempt to have funding for conservative groups eliminated.  We'll try to follow Emily's adventure.

November 26, 2016       Permalink  

DEATH OF A TYRANT – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  Best reaction to the death of Fidel Castro came from President-elect Donald Trump, who tweeted, FIDEL CASTRO IS DEAD! 

Note the exclamation point.  Love it. 

Other world leaders were, er, more traditional.  Most nauseating was former President Jimmy Carter, who exclaimed, "Rosalynn and I share our sympathies with the Castro family and the Cuban people on the death of Fidel Castro. We remember fondly our visits with him in Cuba and his love of his country. We wish the Cuban citizens peace and prosperity in the years ahead."

Yeah, right on, Jimmy.  Castro loved his country so much he ruled it for half a century without a free election.   That's lefty love for you.

CNN went brain dead this morning "reporting" on Fidel's death.  Two anchors mumbled through some uninformative introductory remarks, with one assuring us that the mood in Havana was "sad."  They then switched to their Havana correspondent, who remarked that most people he'd met hadn't even heard that the dictator had passed.  I wonder where the "sad" came from.  Probably from CNN's view of the world.

Cuban-Americans in Miami made clear their feelings.  From the Miami Herald: 

Fidel Castro died, and Cuban Miami did what it does in times of community celebration: It spilled onto the streets of Little Havana — and Hialeah, and Kendall — to honk horns, bang pans, and set off more than a few fireworks, saved for exactly the sort of unexpected occasion worthy of their detonation.

The scene across Miami-Dade County, the cradle of the Cuban exile community, was one of pure, raw emotion. This time, after decades of false alarms, Castro’s death was real.

“I wish my dad was here to see this,” 27-year-old Abraham Quintero cried just before 2 a.m. Saturday.

Wearing an “I love Hialeah” T-shirt, he stood on West 49th Street and Ludlam Road, where police quickly set up watch posts to make sure impromptu revelers stayed safe.

“Beautiful madness,” 29-year-old Christopher Sweeney said, describing the scene.

“I wish my dad was here to see this,” 27-year-old Abraham Quintero cried just before 2 a.m. Saturday.

Wearing an “I love Hialeah” T-shirt, he stood on West 49th Street and Ludlam Road, where police quickly set up watch posts to make sure impromptu revelers stayed safe.

“Beautiful madness,” 29-year-old Christopher Sweeney said, describing the scene.

COMMENT:  The Cuban-Americans in Florida were Castro's loss and our gain.  They rebuilt the city of Miami.

November 26,  2016     Permalink

NOVEMBER 25,  2016

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

FIDEL IS DEAD – FROM CNN:  Fidel Castro, the Cuban despot who famously proclaimed after his arrest in a failed coup attempt that history would absolve him, has died aged 90.  Castro's brother, Raul, announced his death on Cuban TV.  At the end, an elderly and infirm Castro was a whisper of the Marxist firebrand whose iron will and passionate determination bent the arc of destiny.  "There are few individuals in the 20th century who had a more profound impact on a single country than Fidel Castro had in Cuba," Robert Pastor, a former national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, told CNN in 2012...No other nonroyal ruler clung to power as long as Castro did.  I can't wait for the grief that will come from American college campuses.  Memorial services maybe.  Or maybe a good flash-mob attack on an appliance store.  There are many ways to mourn.

THE GRAND KNIFE IN THE BACK – FROM THE HILL:   President Barack Obama called Hillary Clinton to persuade her to concede the White House on election night, according to a forthcoming book on Clinton’s defeat.  Authors Amie Parnes, The Hill's senior White House correspondent, and Jonathan Allen cite three Clintonworld sources familiar with the election-night request in the unreleased book from Crown Publishing.  “You need to concede,” Obama told his former secretary of State as she, her family, and her top aides continued to watch results trickle in from the key Rust Belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The latter state, called after 1:30 a.m. by The Associated Press, was the clear tipping point for the White House race, ensuring Trump would crest over the 270 electoral-vote threshold needed to win.
Clinton ultimately heeded Obama’s advice and called Trump to acknowledge her defeat in the early morning hours Wednesday.  The Obamas and Clintons never liked each other, and Obama's phone call, entirely unnecessary and unprecedented, was the extra blood on the floor.

SUDDEN INTEREST IN CLEAN ELECTIONS – FROM THE HILL:   Wisconsin will undertake a recount of its presidential election votes after two requests from third-party candidates.  Green Party nominee Jill Stein filed her request just before the deadline Friday afternoon, the Wisconsin Elections Commission announced. Reform Party candidate Rocky De La Fuente also filed for a recount.  “We are standing up for an election system that we can trust; for voting systems that respect and encourage our vote, and make it possible for all of us to exercise our constitutional right to vote,” Stein said in a statement.   “We demand voting systems that are accurate, secure and accountable to the people. This is part of a larger commitment to election reform that our campaign and the Green Party has long stood for, which includes open debates, an end to voter ID laws and voter suppression, and ranked choice voting."  The Wisconsin Elections Commission said it is working under a Dec. 13 deadline to finish the recount.   She's also trying to get recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania.  Gee, when Republicans warned about corrupt elections, they were laughed at.  I don't hear any laughing now.  I guess it depends on who gets hurt.  There is, by the way, no evidence that the counts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are inaccurate.

November 25, 2016       Permalink

WORRY FOR TV EXECS ON A HOLIDAY WEEKEND – AT 11:19 A.M. ET:   There's something wrong in TV land.  We saw viewership for the NFL drop earlier this season.  And now we learn that younger viewers are turning off to sports generally.  From Bloomberg: 

Young people are turning off sport on the box -- something that will strike fear into television executives who hoped live matches would be immune from the diversions of Netflix and video games.

European broadcasters like Sky Plc and Telefonica SA pay billions for sports rights and rely on the games' allure to attract people to their more expensive broadband and television bundles. Walt Disney Co., the owner of ESPN, and broadcasters including NBC also use sport to build audiences and sell advertising.

But there are signs it doesn't hold the same spell over young people as their parents. Viewers between the ages of 18 and 24 were the least interested in sport as a genre, according to a survey of 31,000 people across 10 countries carried out by research firm Ampere Analysis.

When asked what type of content they enjoy watching, young people express less enthusiasm for sport than other genres

The trend was most pronounced in the U.S. and U.K., the most advanced markets in terms of internet adoption and alternative sources of information and entertainment. In those countries, interest in sport among young people diverged the most from the average for the country as a whole. (France and Poland were the two exceptions, where young people are more interested.)

COMMENT:  Maybe they just get too upset when their team loses.   The TV companies should establish a "safe channel" for distraught viewers to go to if things just don't work out for their favorites.  Soothing music, films of past victories, the chance to be at one with other grief-stricken fans.  This is needed.

November 25, 2016       Permalink

THE AGE OF OBAMA – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:57 A.M. ET:  A perfect summation of Obama's sense of grandeur about himself, his own time in office, and his contempt for his successor.  Quote of the day, from American Thinker: 

To watch Barack Obama's pathetic final non-victory lap around the world this past week, one can't help but recall his stomach-churning "Apologize for America Tour" at the start of his administration. You'll recall that in April 2009, he went to Europe, which we sacrificed tens of thousands of American lives to liberate 70-plus years ago, and informed Europeans that America "has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive" of Europe.

Last week, Mr. Obama could not resist the urge to dis his country once again, telling the "global community," again from a foreign shore, that in the age of the internet, nationalism (read: Donald Trump) is rearing its ugly head. "Faced with this new reality where cultures clash, it's inevitable that some will seek a comfort in nationalism or tribe or ethnicity or sect," he informed us from Athens. He reassured his audience that "American democracy is bigger than any one person." (Wink, wink, Donald.) Fittingly, he then went on to tour the ruins of ancient Greece, before flying off to Berlin to cry on the shoulder of his globalist soul mate, Angela Merkel, another leader looking at a potential uprising by her constituency, frightened by her insane immigration policies.

The choice of debt-ridden Greece, Europe's worst economic basket case, was oddly appropriate as the location for the start of the swansong tour of the U.S. president who has produced as much American national debt in eight years as all previous American presidents had produced over a span of 220 years combined. One must wonder if Mr. Obama views pauper Greece as the model America should emulate.

These two globetrotting tours by the man-child president expressing disdain for both his own country and the choices of its people seem the perfect bookends to Obama's presidency.

COMMENT:  Brace yourselves for the media's farewell to Obama, coming soon to a flat screen near you.  I am waiting for the first "observer" to say, breathlessly, "I think he's ready for Mount Rushmore."  And then watch the nodding heads.  There will be a major movement to give him something useful, or destructive, to do.  Maybe a special office can be created – Chief Demigod of the Universe.  I kind of like that, as long as he provides his own car.  And lunch.

November 25, 2016        Permalink

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED – AT 10:29 A.M. ET:  You mean, Iran is not playing it straight with us?  I can't believe that.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

The Obama administration has given clearance to Western airline manufacturers to sell planes to Iran at the same time the Islamic Republic is using commercial airliners to smuggle weapons and other illicit arms to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, according to new intelligence and congressional communications obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The disclosure of this new intelligence, which shows that Iran has been using its commercial airline company to smuggle advanced weaponry to Hezbollah and terrorists operating in Syria, has placed renewed focus on a congressional inquiry that has been stymied by Obama administration officials since early October.

Senators, led by Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.), have been pushing Obama administration officials to explain why they are helping airline manufacturers Boeing and AirBus sell planes to Iran, despite clear evidence that Tehran is using its commercial airline as cover for its continued terrorist operations across the region.

As with multiple other congressional investigations into the Obama administration’s efforts to roll back economic sanctions and conduct secret dealings with Iran, officials have stonewalled Perdue, refusing to answer key questions about the motivation for aiding Tehran’s pursuit of planes that could be used to further its terrorist enterprise.

COMMENT:  Money talks.  Those aircraft contracts are worth a mint.  Airbus has already gotten a large contract from Iran. 

Perdue is correct and courageous, but I suspect the Iranians will get the planes they want, either from Europe or America.  It's like selling scrap metal to Japan right before World War II.  It came back to us in other forms.

November 25,  2016     Permalink