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NOVEMBER 29,  2016

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

THE DONALD STRIKES – FROM FOX:  Air conditioning company Carrier said Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with President-elect Donald Trump that would keep 1,000 jobs in Indianapolis. Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Indiana's outgoing governor, planned to travel to the state Thursday to unveil the agreement alongside company officials.   Watch the mainstream media try to disparage and minimize this important step toward keeping jobs in America.  The American people will understand it, though.

DIETICIANS IN A PANIC – FROM REUTERS:  VERBANIA, Italy (Reuters) - Emma Morano, thought to be the world's oldest person and the last to be born in the 1800s, celebrated her 117th birthday on Tuesday, still swearing by her diet of two raw eggs a day.   Morano was born in November 1899, four years before the Wright brothers first took to the air. Her life has spanned three centuries, two World Wars and over 90 Italian governments..."When I first knew her she used to eat three eggs a day. Two raw, and one fried. Today she has slowed down a bit, reducing the number to two some days because she says three can be too much," her doctor Carlo Bava told Reuters TV.  "She has never eaten much fruit or vegetables. Her characteristic is that she always eats the same thing, every day, every week, every month and every year."   How dare she violate the rules set down by Vogue.  Who does she think she is?

MAJOR POLITICAL NEWS – FROM YAHOO:  President Obama says both he and first lady Michelle Obama will be “very active” in working with people at the grass-roots level to support progressive causes once he leaves office. But despite her popularity and natural public-speaking ability, Michelle isn’t interested in a career in politics.  “Michelle will never run for office,” the president told Rolling Stone in an interview conducted the day after the election. “She is as talented a person as I know. You can see the incredible resonance she has with the American people. But I joke that she’s too sensible to want to be in politics.”   I'm devastated.  I just can't accept a world in which Michelle isn't president.  Find me a safe space.

November 29, 2016       Permalink             

THE HORROR GOES ON – AT 12:46 P.M. ET:   As the Obama administration comes to a close, we note the continued agony of Chicago, the president's home town.  It's a shooting gallery.  We're told that black lives matter, but apparently these black lives don't matter to political activists.  From the Chicago Tribune: 

Chicago saw one its most violent Thanksgiving holidays in years, with eight people killed and 62 others wounded between late Wednesday afternoon and early Monday.

The toll towers over the number of shootings in the previous two Thanksgiving holiday weekends, according to data kept by the Tribune.

In 2014, five people were killed, including a woman inside the Nordstrom's store on Michigan Avenue, and 14 others were wounded. Last year, eight people were killed, including a 16-year-old boy, and 20 were wounded, the data show.

This year's tally does not include the three people shot dead by Chicago police over the holiday period.

In one of those shootings, authorities said officers fired at a man who had just shot two people, one of them fatally, early Friday in the Homan Square neighborhood on the West Side. In another shooting Sunday night, authorities said an officer shot and killed a man who wounded a pregnant woman in West Garfield Park.

Early Saturday in the South Chicago neighborhood, a 20-year-old man was killed and five others were wounded at a house party, police said.

The number of people shot in Chicago this year is around 4,000, more than 1,000 above this time last year, according to Tribune data.

COMMENT:  Would you just look at those numbers.  Where is the outrage from the liberal press? 

And once again we ask why the media will not focus on the contrast between New York and Chicago.  New York made a huge dent in crime, Chicago sees crime increasing.  Why?  The reason, of course, is that New York had a great mayor named Rudy Giuliani, who set out to make his city safe, and succeeded.  However, Rudy is a Republican, so it doesn't count.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.

November 29, 2016       Permalink

DEMS TRY TO GET IT TOGETHER – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  The more mature Democrats, both of them, know that it will be a long haul.  The first challenge to the Dem establishment comes tomorrow.  From The Hill:

House Democrats return to Washington on Tuesday grappling over the best course for the party’s future.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), facing a challenge from Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), is seen as the heavy favorite in elections on Wednesday to keep her top leadership spot, where she’s been perched for the past 14 years.

Democrats will decide on their new leader in a secret ballot vote that highlights the caucus’s restlessness and resurrects internal tensions that have simmered since Democrats lost control of the lower chamber in 2010.

While House Democrats gained at least six seats this cycle — several contests remain too close to call — that figure was a far cry from the 25 pickups Pelosi had predicted. Seeking more accountability for the dismal results, dozens of restive lawmakers successfully delayed the party’s leadership elections to this week to allow more time for reckoning. But in the eyes of Ryan and his supporters, nothing short of a change at the top will get the party back on a winning track.

“The level of frustration in our caucus is as great as I have seen it,” Ryan said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

It’s a battle few envisioned just a few weeks ago as Democrats headed into the elections with high hopes that Donald Trump’s incendiary presidential campaign would be a curse on vulnerable Republicans, leading to big gains for Democrats in the House.

Instead, Trump’s message drew droves of white, working-class voters to the polls, bolstering down-ballot Republicans while leaving Pelosi and the Democrats to ponder what went wrong and plot a path out of the minority wilderness.

Ryan’s challenge hinges largely on the argument that Pelosi, a San Francisco liberal widely despised in conservative circles, simply projects the wrong image for a party hoping to broaden its appeal to the Rust Belt voters who flocked to Trump.

COMMENT:  Ryan is right.  Pelosi has a net worth in the tens of millions, and represents one of the most left-wing cities in America.  Ryan comes from a family of working stiffs, and is much more like the old Democratic Party, where people who punched a time clock felt welcome.  Today's Democrats never heard of a time clock.   Should they buy one, it would be by Rolex.

If the Dems had their act together, they'd choose Ryan, and replace other old warhorses as well.  But the party is still gripped by identity politics, and each group has its little interest.  If Trump succeeds, the Democrats could be in the wilderness for years.

November 29, 2016       Permalink

OH, IT'S SO HARD TO FIND A MOTIVE – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  A Somali immigrant with grievances against those he felt had damaged Muslims went on a rampage at Ohio State yesterday, running his car into a group of students, then going on a knifing spree, ultimately injuring or wounding ten before he was shot dead by a heroic police officer.  And they're looking for a motive?  How politically correct is that?  From CNN:

(CNN) Investigators are searching for a motive behind an Ohio State University student's knife attack on campus Monday morning that wounded 11 people.

Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a student who recently transferred there, had written in a Facebook post he had grown "sick and tired" of seeing fellow Muslims "killed and tortured," according to federal law enforcement officials. Authorities are now looking into whether the attack was terrorism but said it would take time to determine a motive.

In a Facebook post shortly before the rampage, the Somali immigrant urged America "to stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah," a term for Muslim people at large.
"By Allah, we will not let you sleep unless you give peace to the Muslims," he wrote. "You will not celebrate or enjoy any holiday."

Artan rammed his car into a group of people on the Columbus campus. He then exited the car and charged at passersby with a knife.

Ohio State Police Officer Alan Horujko shot Artan after he failed to obey orders to stop -- ending his life and stopping the tragic attack.

COMMENT:  The fact is that anti-terror experts have long worried about the infiltration of the Somali immigrant community by terrorists.  I think that's where you begin.

The police officer who stopped the attack had training in Israeli anti-terror techniques.  We await the first demonstration protesting that. 

November 29,  2016     Permalink

NOVEMBER 28,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:05 P.M. ET: 

LITTLE MAN GROWS UP – FROM REUTERS:   OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will not attend the funeral of Fidel Castro, his office said on Monday, days after Trudeau's warm comments about the late Cuban leader sparked a backlash.  Trudeau referred on Saturday to Castro as a "remarkable leader" and expressed his sorrow at the death of "Cuba’s longest serving president."  Trudeau acknowledged on Sunday that Castro had been a dictator as political opponents called on him to boycott the funeral.  Outrage and mockery about Trudeau's fond words for Castro, who had been an honorary pallbearer at the funeral in 2000 of Trudeau's father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, has threatened to end the Liberal leader's long honeymoon.  Noting the "many questions" about whether Trudeau would attend the funeral, spokeswoman Andree-Lyne Halle said in an email the prime minister would skip the event.  "His schedule doesn't permit it," she said.  Neither does his political survival.

OBAMACARE FOE FOR HHS – FROM CNN MONEY:   President-elect Donald Trump has selected Georgia Representative Tom Price, an ardent critic of Obamacare, to head the Department of Health and Human Services, according to an official briefed on the decision.  The official announcement will likely come Tuesday.  One of Price's top priorities as health secretary will be to dismantle the sweeping health reform law that his two predecessors spent six years implementing.  Price, an orthopedic surgeon who chairs the House Budget Committee, has long decried Obamacare as a threat to quality and affordable health care.  "The purpose of health reform should be to advance accessibility, affordability, quality, responsiveness, and innovation," the Republican congressman said in 2011, a year after Obamacare was signed into law. "None of these are improved" by the Affordable Care Act, he added.  If Ben Carson takes HUD, there will be two physicians in the Cabinet.  I believe that would be a first.

TERROR AT OHIO STATE – FROM NBC NEWS:    An Ohio State University student posted a rant shortly before he plowed a car into a campus crowd and stabbed people with a butcher knife in an ambush that ended when a police officer shot him dead, a law enforcement official said.  Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, wrote on what appears to be his Facebook page that he had reached a "boiling point," made a reference to "lone wolf attacks" and cited radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.  "America! Stop interfering with other countries, especially Muslim Ummah [community]. We are not weak. We are not weak, remember that," the post said.  Two hours before that, a cryptic post on the page said: "Forgive and forget. Love."  Officials cautioned that they have not determined a motive for the ambush, which sent 11 people to the hospital Monday morning. A senior law enforcement official told NBC News that investigators are trying to determine whether Artan had personal problems or something else that might have pushed him over the edge.  Islamist extremist?  What Islamist extremist?  Why, he's just a troubled youth.  Maybe he was pushed over the edge by those "salute to Israel" parades.  We must understand.

November 28, 2016       Permalink

STUNNING – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:   It is sometimes difficult to comprehend what has just happened to the Democratic Party, once the party of Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy.  The great Andrew Malcolm lays it on the line for McClatchy: 

How quickly times change in this remarkable year. In early November, much of the public discussion was hand-wringing over how divided Republicans would have to rebuild their shattered party after the crushing disaster of Donald Trump’s almost certain Nov. 8 defeat.

Turns out, at the end of November the reconstruction recriminations, struggles and talking points are on the other party’s teleprompter. It’s the GOP’s time for change to believe in. Will those hopes be fulfilled, especially regarding the Supreme Court?

In addition to the White House and both houses of Congress, the GOP will soon control 34 governorships and more state legislative seats than in its entire 162-year history. Not to mention, the all-important presidential bully pulpit, which Trump is already using eight weeks before his inauguration.

The Democratic Party, those scattered dots of blue mostly along the coasts, is in political reality no longer a national party. Its Rust Belt loyalists abandoned the status quo, leftist campaign of Hillary Clinton, whether in disgust over her scandals, the party’s direction or Barack Obama’s empty economic leadership. Or maybe they fell for the blow-up-the-Washington establishment appeal of Trump.

And...

So far, Trump’s skilled arrangement of meetings and choreographed leaks present the image of a thoughtful chief executive reaching out to unite his party, to build strong ties to Congress and to assemble a smart administration in the short two months available to him. We should hear much more of his appointments before the holidays.

Not coincidentally, Trump’s improved behavior also allowed considerable public focus to fall on Democrats wallowing in the understandable self-doubt and recriminations of their historic upset and defeats up and down the ballot.

Will Trump remain disciplined under Oval Office pressures? Will Washington’s Republicans deliver sufficient change soon enough to assuage angry voters who gave them full control after six years of government gridlock? And will this enable the historically minority party of Lincoln to construct a new, enduring coalition of conservatives, independents and deserting Democrats?

That’s the key to watch these next two years.

COMMENT:  The great gift to Trump is the divided, bitter, and clueless Democratic Party.  It's as bad as it was when it nominated George McGovern in 1972, at a convention dominated by the aroma of marijuana.  And I'm not really encouraged about the future of that party.  The left wing, with its identity politics and informal ethnic quotas, may have become too powerful to allow for reform.  I would not be shocked if a third party is started by former Democrats and moderate Republicans.

November 28, 2016       Permalink

COMEBACK? – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Americans love a good comeback story.  They may get one with the Trump administration.  From Bloomberg:

President-elect Donald Trump is considering retired General David Petraeus to be secretary of state and plans to meet with the former CIA director Monday in New York, according to a senior official with the transition.

The celebrated four-star general, who left government under a cloud for sharing classified documents during an extramarital affair, is meeting with the president-elect amid infighting among Trump’s advisers about who to pick for the post. The possibility that Trump might instead tap former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for the post has fueled an extraordinary public lobbying campaign against him.

Kellyanne Conway, who managed Trump’s campaign and is now a senior adviser to his transition, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that she is “just astonished at the breathtaking volume and intensity of blow-back that I see” toward the possibility of Romney serving as the nation’s top diplomat.

“In the last four years, I mean, has he been around the globe doing something on behalf of the U.S. of which we’re unaware? Did he go and intervene in Syria where they’re having a massive humanitarian crisis?” she asked on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Has he been helpful to Mr. Netanyahu?” she asked, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

If Petraeus wins Senate confirmation, it will represent one of Trump’s boldest appointments and a remarkable comeback for the 64-year-old general who won acclaim overseeing military operations in Afghanistan and Iran before serving as director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama. The Senate voted 94-0 to confirm him for that post.

COMMENT:  Well, Winston Churchill made a spectacular comeback in 1940, after years in the political wilderness, and led Britain during its "finest hour."  Maybe the same fate is in store for Petraeus.  His "mistake" was serious, though, and he will be forced to discuss it publicly should he be tapped.

November 28, 2016       Permalink

THE PRESS AND MR. TRUMP – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  It is not a happy marriage, nor will it ever be.  Mr. Trump won a presidential election by tapping into the real concerns of actual voters.  The press doesn't know the country in which Mr. Trump won that election.

Ari Fleischer, who was President George W. Bush's press secretary, has written a superb piece on the relationship between press and president.  From The Wall Street Journal: 

It isn’t only Trump who is complaining. A September Gallup poll showed that trust and confidence in the mass media “to report the news fully, accurately and fairly” had dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history. An October Pew poll showed that only 5% of the public report they have a “great deal” of confidence in the news media, while 61% have “no confidence” or “not much confidence,” a level surpassed only by the low regard the public has for elected officials.

Reporters are aware of these surveys, but they don’t change. They remain mostly liberal and largely made up of the same elites who couldn’t imagine Mr. Trump winning the nomination, let alone the presidency. Too many live in a bubble in which they talk mainly to similar-minded journalists. They fail to understand that the combination of ideological bias and the loss of public confidence makes them vulnerable to the changes President Trump might seek.

In every era, the nation needs a fair and vigilant press to check the power of the president. Presidents might not like it, but it serves the country well. The daily briefing by the press secretary has long been a TV show, not a serious briefing, but it is still worth the effort. The mainstream media have a role to play, and so do a lot of other outlets. But when the press is too liberal or unfair, the media themselves put what they do at risk.

I don’t know what changes President-elect Trump will make, but he has extraordinary latitude. If he decides to go around the press entirely, abolish the daily briefing, give seats to different reporters, appoint a combative press secretary, or not take a press pool with him to dinner, the reason he’ll be able to get away with it is because the mainstream media lost the trust of the American people.

COMMENT:  And I'm afraid the process of losing that trust began decades ago, perhaps in the rice paddies of Vietnam, where certain American reporters, fresh with their Ivy League degrees, announced, in their brilliance, that Americans were really the bad guys. 

Read Ari Fleischer's whole piece.  Well worth reading and sending around.

November 28,  2016     Permalink