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NOVEMBER 26,  2018

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

SO NOW WE KNOW – FROM BIZPACREVIEW:   Barbra Streisand insulted millions of women who voted for President Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, suggesting that they couldn’t think for themselves.
“I love my country,” Streisand told The Daily Mail. “And it’s painful to see democracy being assaulted, institutions being assaulted and women being assaulted.”  In a show of how the left never strays far from the reservation, she then regurgitated Hillary Clinton’s talking point earlier this year about how Republican women vote to please their husbands.  “A lot of women vote the way their husbands vote; they don’t believe enough in their own thoughts. Maybe that woman who’s so articulate, so experienced and so fit for the presidency was too intimidating,” Streisand said, referencing Clinton’s failed run in 2016.  Rabidly anti-Trump, the 76-year-old iconic recording artist targeted the president in a song on her latest album.  She should stick to singing.  She's a classic New York liberal, absolutely intolerant, and thoroughly believing in her own wonderfulness.

THE CHILD SPEAKS AGAIN – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Sen. Lindsey Graham slammed newly elected New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for comparing Central American asylum seekers in the migrant caravan to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany during WWII.  “I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC,” Graham, a Republican from South Carolina tweeted Monday. “Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana.”  Graham was responding to a tweet sent by Ocasio-Cortez, in which she compared previous refugee groups — including Jews during WWII — to the current migrants fleeing Central America.  The child – we call her little Evita from the Bronx – is already tiresome, and she hasn't even been sworn in yet as a congresswoman.  If the Democrats were smart – a dubious proposition – they'd put her on the back bench and zip her lip.

THE HEAD OF THE MOST POLITICALLY CORRECT STATE PARTY IN THE COUNTRY APPARENTLY HAS A BIT OF A PROBLEM – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  The California Democratic Party announced Monday that chairman Eric Bauman will take a leave of absence until an outside investigation concludes examining allegations of sexual misconduct against him.  The decision was made after Bauman used the “the holiday weekend to consider the most constructive path forward for the work of the California Democratic Party,” according to California Democratic Party spokesperson Mike Roth.  "Chair Bauman believes this decision is the best way to ensure the independence and integrity of the process," Roth said in a statement. "The Party is confident that the procedures in place will allow for all parties to come forward freely and provide for a thorough and complete review."  The second-vice chair of the California Democratic Party Daraka Larimore-Hall sent a letter to the party last week claiming that Bauman “sexually harassed, and in some cases sexually assaulted, individuals during Party functions,” but did not share specific details.  Does Bauman have to present himself for execution? I guess so.  Maybe hard labor would correct him.  You just watch the political correctness emerge from this case.

November 26,  2018     Permalink

MISSISSIPPI VOTES TOMORROW – AT 3:44 P.M. ET:   A special runoff election in Mississippi tomorrow will decide whether the GOP holds on to a seat in the US Senate, or loses it, in an upset, to a Democrat.  If the Republicans hold, fine.  That will mean a plus two result in the recent Senate elections, strengthening the party's hand in confirming judges.

But if the Republican candidate is upset, that will mean a gain of only one seat for Mitch McConnell's majority.  Not exactly a triumph.  From CNN:

The Mississippi Senate runoff was expected to be a quiet finale to the 2018 election season but instead has turned into a nationally watched affair.

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's comments about attending a "public hanging," along with a series of other controversies, have led to critical media coverage and several companies publicly disavowing her.

But while her statements and actions may make Tuesday's special Senate election a closer affair than it might otherwise have been, make no mistake: she is a heavy favorite against Democrat Mike Espy.
Mississippi is as red as they come. It hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter won the state in 1976. The last Democrat elected to the Senate was John Stennis in 1982. The last Democrat elected governor was Ronnie Musgrove in 1999.

Mississippi's redness showed no sign of abating when voters went to the polls earlier this month. Republicans Hyde-Smith and Chris McDaniel combined for 58% of the vote in the jungle primary, while Democrats Tobey Bartee and Espy combined for 42%. That doesn't look very different from Republican President Donald Trump's 18-point 2016 victory in the state.

It shouldn't be too surprising that there wasn't much movement off the 2016 baseline. Mississippi Democrats seem to have a low ceiling in Senate elections. No Democrat has come closer than 8 points to a Republican in the last 30 years. Only two Democrats have come within single digits.

COMMENT:  We can be guardedly optimistic.  The president is in Mississippi today, and clearly his intent is to drive Republicans to the polls.  We'll get the verdict tomorrow night.

November 26, 2018       Permalink

SUCCESSFUL! – AT 3:12 P.M. ET:   The spacecraft "InSight" has landed on Mars.  Perfect.  From Fox: 

NASA’s announced that its Mars InSight lander landed successfully on the surface of the Red Planet, ending a journey that lasted nearly six months and more than 300 million miles.

The InSight lander entered Mars's atmosphere just shortly after 2:40 p.m. EST on Monday and touched the surface at approximately 2:54 p.m. EST. The last part of the journey was the most harrowing, with NASA calling it "seven minutes of terror" due to the agency's inability to control the landing of the spacecraft, which cost $828 million. Scientists determined that no additional changes were needed to the algorithm that will guide the spacecraft to the Martian surface.

COMMENT:  It was great to watch on TV.  Like the old days of the space program, where the emphasis was on pushing the envelope, discovery, and science.  Not a word about politics this time.

I did see, however, numerous NASA scientists embracing and hugging after the landing.  I assume that Kamala Harris and Cory Booker will immediately launch an investigation into whether any of the women involved were hugged without their written consent.  I want the truth to come out.  No due process. 

November 26, 2018       Permalink

KEEP FINGERS CROSSED – AT 11:05 A.M. ET:  Today, we hope, will be a great one in the history of America's space program.  From Fox: 

NASA’s InSight Lander is close to making its historic touchdown on Mars after an epic journey of just over 300 million miles.

The Lander is expected to reach the Martian surface around 3 p.m. ET Monday.

When it reaches the Red Planet, the probe will have traveled 301,223,981 miles at a top speed of 6,200 mph, according to NASA. The final stage of its descent, however, is fraught with difficulty — NASA engineers characterize landing on Mars as “seven minutes of terror.”

"We can't joystick the landing, so we have to rely on the commands we pre-program into the spacecraft. We've spent years testing our plans, learning from other Mars landings and studying all the conditions Mars can throw at us,” said Rob Grover, InSight's entry, descent and landing (EDL) lead, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a recent statement. And we're going to stay vigilant till InSight settles into its home in the Elysium Planitia region."

On Sunday NASA engineers successfully tweaked the probe’s trajectory, steering the spacecraft within a few miles of its targeted entry point over the Red Planet.

"While most of the country was enjoying Thanksgiving with their family and friends, the InSight team was busy making the final preparations for Monday's landing," said Tom Hoffman of JPL, InSight's project manager, in a statement released Sunday. "Landing on Mars is difficult and takes a lot of personal sacrifices, such as missing the traditional Thanksgiving, but making InSight successful is well worth the extraordinary effort."

COMMENT:  We will be watching.  Remember when President Obama said that the mission of NASA was "Muslim outreach"?  Americans gasped.  Gasp no more.  We're back.

November 26,  2018     Permalink

NOVEMBER 25,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:08 P.M. ET: 

THIS MAN IS NUTS – FROM BREITBART:  Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” billionaire hedge fund manager and liberal activist Tom Steyer said President Donald Trump had already “met the grounds for impeachment.”  Partial transcript as follows:   TODD: Where would you prioritize impeachment right now for the new Democratic House? You think it’s front and center, don’t you?  STEYER: I think it’s an absolute first step to getting towards a positive vision for the country. And let me say this.  TODD: You would start with impeachment? If you with Elijah Cummings, well, he’s on Oversight. So Judiciary Committee, you would start drawing up these articles? STEYER: I think there’s no question that this president has both met the grounds for impeachment and that it’s urgent to get him out of office and everything. I was just listening to the last segment when you were talking about Saudi Arabia. Is there anybody in the United States who can tell you that the president is acting on Saudi Arabia not because the Saudis are paying him money?  Note the absolute lack of any evidence.  Who needs evidence when you're a billionaire?  I'm reminded of the old saying, "When you're rich they think you really know."  It isn't always true.

ANOTHER PERSON OF DUBIOUS STABILITY – FROM FOX:  Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, tweeted Sunday that the use of tear gas against Central American migrants who attempted to enter the U.S. illegally may have been a violation of international agreements governing the use of chemical weapons -- before he backtracked.  The Associated Press reported that U.S. agents shot several rounds of the gas after migrants tried to penetrate several points along the border at the San Ysidro border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and California. Migrants sought to squeeze through gaps in wire, climb over fences and peel back metal sheeting to enter.  In response to the reports, Schatz initially tweeted: "Tear gas across the border against unarmed families is a new low." Approximately 45 minutes later, Schatz tweeted: "Who gave the order? Did it implement or contravene policy?" He then tweeted "WHO GAVE THE ORDER?" in all caps.Schatz then asked: "Why tear gas? Is this consistent with the Conventions on Chemical Weapons?"  Another crazed liberal in need of medication covered by Obamacare.  He might ask who gave the order for "migrants" to charge the border.

WEDDING NEWS – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski tied the knot in a secret Saturday ceremony officiated by a top Democratic congressman in the rotunda of the National Archives.  Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., married Brzezinski, 51, and Scarborough, 55, in an intimate affair set in the historic building, according to Vanity Fair. Cummings, who is likely the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is a former colleague of Scarborough's, dating back to when the TV personality served as a Republican congressman from Florida.  The bride, wearing a lace Michelle Smith dress, met the groom in the middle of the rotunda to Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.” They then said their vows in front of a small group of family and friends, including Scarborough's four children from his two previous marriages and Brzezinski's two daughters with her ex-husband. Brzezinski’s daughter Emilie’s dog was also in attendance, providing Brzezinski’s "something blue" with the color of its leash.  How close is the media to the Democratic Party?  So close that Democratic congressmen officiate at their weddings?  I think I've seen everything.

November 25, 2018       Permalink

THE BIG WEEKEND – THE WEB TRIUMPHS – AT 2:53 P.M. ET:   Sales during this holiday weekend are critical to the nation's economy.   A first report, from Reuters: 

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday kickoff of the U.S. holiday shopping season showed the increasing preference for online purchases, as more Americans opted to stay home and use their smartphones while sales and traffic at brick-and-mortar stores declined.

The ongoing shift to online shopping has forced retailers across the country to invest heavily in boosting their e-commerce businesses, and also highlights the impact of early holiday promotions and year-round deals on consumer spending.

The weekend also redefined the importance of Black Friday. For the past few years, Black Friday was believed to be waning in importance, but it is now turning into a day when shoppers do not necessarily flock to stores but spend heavily online...

...Online sales rose more than 23 percent, crossing $6 billion on Black Friday, according to data from Adobe Analytics, which tracks transactions at 80 of the top 100 U.S. retailers. On Thanksgiving, it estimated sales grew 28 percent to $3.7 billion.

Preliminary data from analytics firm RetailNext showed net sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell 4 to 7 percent over the two days, while traffic fell 5 to 9 percent, continuing the trend of recent years. No data was yet available for actual spending in stores.

And...

Retail consultants have said spending patterns over the weekend are not as indicative of the entire season as they were a few years ago the tendency now is to spread shopping over November and December.

COMMENT:  The overall comments that we've seen indicate a very solid holiday weekend in sales, but the details may have to wait for some time because of those changed spending patterns.  No one is crying.

November 25, 2018       Permalink

INCIVILITY AND ITS CAUSES – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 1:12 P.M. ET:  There is much whining about the state of civility in the United States.  Naturally, the media never blames itself for incivility, and certainly never blames its feeder system, the colleges and universities.  The great Walter Williams begs to differ.  From dailywire.com: 

Much of today's incivility and contempt for personal liberty has its roots on college campuses, and most of the uncivil and contemptuous are people with college backgrounds…

...A recent Brookings Institution poll found that nearly half of college students believe that hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment. That's nonsense; it is. Fifty-one percent of college students think they have a right to shout down a speaker with whom they disagree. Nineteen percent of students think that it's acceptable to use violence to prevent a speaker from speaking. Over 50 percent agree that colleges should prohibit speech and viewpoints that might offend certain people. One shouldn't be surprised at all if these visions are taught and held by many of their professors. Colleges once taught and promoted an understanding of Western culture. Today many professors and the college bureaucracy teach students that they're victims of Western culture and values.

Benjamin Franklin wrote, "Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech." Much later, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said, "Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime." From the Nazis to Stalinists to Maoists, tyrants have always started out supporting free speech, just as American leftists did during the 1960s. Their support for free speech is easy to understand. Speech is vital for the realization of their goals of command, control and confiscation. The right to say what they please is their tool for indoctrination, propagandizing and proselytization. Once the leftists gain control, as they have at many universities, free speech becomes a liability and must be suppressed. This is increasingly the case on university campuses. Much of the off-campus incivility we see today is the fruit of what a college education has done to our youth.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  We must stop thinking of education as a guaranteed positive good.  In fact, all over the world students are taught the worst ideas.  And in our country, as Walter Williams indicates, students are too often taught that the very civilization that gives them their freedoms is in fact their oppressor.

We have sent too many students to college without asking what was being taught, and who was doing the teaching.  That failure to ask may be fatal. 

November 25,  2018     Permalink