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DECEMBER 23,  2016

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

ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   President Obama is planning to deliver his final speech as commander in chief in his hometown of Chicago next month, according to a report Thursday.  Though the president and his family are on vacation in Hawaii until Jan. 2, he will return to the contiguous U.S. for the final two and a half weeks of his presidency before his successor, Donald Trump, is sworn into office.  Sources familiar with the planning of the event told Politico they expect the speech to take place on Jan. 10 and that the Secret Service is looking at large venues such as McCormick Place in the United Center.  The White House has not commented.  He will do everything possible to upstage Trump, Maybe he'll ride in on a chariot.  But he will fail, for he has nothing to say.  The mainstreamers, however, will declare his speech one of the greatest in the history of the Universe. 

THE SWING VOTE WILL STAY – FROM DAILY CALLER:  Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will remain on the bench for at least another term, despite indications that his retirement was imminent.  Rumors abounded that Kennedy was preparing to depart the bench at the end of the Court’s current term in June 2017...Kennedy is usually the swing vote among the justices, though he resents the characterization. President-elect Donald Trump will make at least one appointment to the Court, however, Kennedy’s vote will still be critical to the outcome of ideologically-charged cases that tend to divide the justices. As such, he will likely still enjoy his position of maximum influence for several years...Trump will be making his first Supreme Court pick within weeks, nominating a candidate to succeed the late Antonin Scalia.  Odds are he will have several more Court picks in the next four years. 

DO YOU THINK THIS IS TRUE? – FROM FOX:   An Oklahoma man is facing up to a year in jail after being caught by police doing 208 mph on a public road at night.  The incident took place in November on the Kilpatrick Turnpike in Oklahoma City, when Hector Fraire was spotted doing 85 mph in a 70 mph zone in his modified blue 2011 Ford Mustang, then reportedly sped up to evade the police car that tried to pull him over.  The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says he was then clocked at 176 mph and 208 mph and turned off his headlights and brake lights at one point, before finally pulling over for a patrol car that intercepted him at a red light.  Officials told The Oklahoman that Fraire "became really apologetic and stated he ran because he was scared," and described him as a member of a “local racing club.”  I am not now, nor have I ever been, a car nut.  So I will leave it to the experts in our readership to tell me whether a modified Mustang can get up to 208 miles an hour.  I personally never drive faster than 180.

December 23, 2016       Permalink

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  The president of Egypt, the most important country in the Arab world, is making it clear where he believes the power now lies.  From The Times of Israel:   

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt said its president received a call from President-elect Donald Trump in which they both agreed to give the incoming US administration a chance to try and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The call came hours after Egypt indefinitely postponed a UN vote on its Security Council resolution criticizing Israeli settlements, following pressure from Israel and Trump, who had called on members to veto it.

A statement from the Egyptian presidency said the two men spoke by phone early Friday and agreed on “the importance of giving a chance for the new American administration to deal in a comprehensive way with the different aspects of the Palestinian issue with the aim of achieving a comprehensive and a final resolution” to the decades-old conflict.

Egypt requested Thursday that its resolution demanding Israel halt settlements be postponed after Jerusalem launched a frantic lobbying effort.

An official in Jerusalem later Thursday accused the Obama administration of attempting a diplomatic ‘hit’ against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the settlements by planning to let the resolution pass, and a second Israeli source said the administration, in its final days, was violating a “core commitment” to defend Israel at the UN.

COMMENT:  President el-Sissi of Egypt is pro-American, but has been treated terribly by the Obama administration, which seems to believe that America's allies are burdens, and America's enemies are merely misunderstood.  The priority for Egypt right now, aside from its excellent working relationship with Israel, is its relationship with the new president of the United States, not the one who's on vacation in Hawaii.

December 23, 2016       Permalink

HIJACK – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  Details are just developing in what could be another act of terror.  From London's Telegraph: 

Passengers have been allowed to leave a plane that was hijacked on an internal flight in Libya and forced to land in Malta with 118 people on board.

Two hijackers on board the state-owned Afriqiyah Airways plane have hand grenades and have threatened to blow up the aircraft, according to Malta state television. Their demands are not clear.

Around two-and-a-half hours after hijacked Flight 8U209 landed at Valletta, passengers began leaving the Airbus A320.

The Maltese prime minister said at 1.30pm GMT that 109 of the 111 passengers had been allowed to leave the aircraft. There are also seven crew members on board.

Maltese government sources said that at least one hijacker on board had told crew that he had a grenade. He said he was "pro-Gaddafi" and would release all passengers – but not the crew – if his as-yet-undisclosed demands were accepted, local media reported.

The deputy mayor for Lija in Malta, Madga Magri Naudi, confirmed that the hijackers had not yet made demands.

"The request has not been made," she told the BBC. "This is a problem: we do not know what their requests are at the moment."

The aircraft, carrying 111 passengers – 82 men, 28 women and an infant – and seven crew members, was on an internal flight from Sebha, in south-west Libya, to Tripoli when it appeared to be hijacked on Friday morning.

The pilot tried to land in Libya, but the hijackers refused his request, he told Tripoli airport control before communications were lost, according to a security official.

COMMENT:  What strikes me is that this is another terror-style act occurring during the holiday period.  It follows the attack in Berlin, and we now learn that Australian authorities broke up a plot in their country that was to be hatched this week.  Security forces are on high alert all over the world.

December 23, 2016       Permalink

THEY GOT HIM – AT 8:35 A.M. ET:  The alleged perpetrator of the truck attack in Berlin has been shot dead in Italy.  From Fox: 

Italian police killed the Islamist terrorist suspected in the deadly attack on a Berlin Christmas market, after confronting him in Milan, some 675 miles from the scene of Monday's carnage, police said.
Anis Amri, the 24-year-old Tunisian whose monstrous attack sparked a 72-hour manhunt and raised questions about Germany's inability to come to grips with radicals among its burgeoning refugee population, was killed in a wee-hours shootout in the Sesto San Giovanni district of the northern Italian city, police said.

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti told reporters at a news conference that the dead man was "without any doubt" Amri. Monday's attack in Berlin, for which ISIS has claimed credit, left 12 dead and more than 50 injured, including two Americans.

The shootout occurred just after 3 a.m. local time, according to Italian police. Amri was pulled over in a vehicle and asked for identification, and pulled a .22 calibre gun out of his backpack and fired at a cop, police said. The police officer, identified as Critian Morio, was struck, but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Morio and another police officer who was not injured "have done an extraordinary service to the community," Minniti said.

COMMENT:  These terrorists love to go out in a blaze of glory.  In his own eyes, this one did.  It's sad that the authorities will not get to interrogate him, but he can do no further harm.

December 23,  2016     Permalink

DECEMBER 22,  2016

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

FOX TRIUMPHS – FROM AP:   NEW YORK (AP) -- A sharp drop in cable news ratings following a presidential election is as inevitable as snow in Buffalo. Yet in the Age of Trump, so far Fox News Channel is defying that trend.  Comparing the five weeks after the election to the white-hot campaign days of October, Fox's prime-time audience is down 8 percent, the Nielsen company said. That's a much smaller drop than rivals CNN and MSNBC, and smaller than all of the networks historically following elections.  "They've really, obviously, established themselves as the go-to place for all things Trump, Trump supporters certainly," said Paul Sweeney, an analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. "This is their time to shine and they're making the most of it."  Post-election has been a victory lap for Sean Hannity, who made no secret of his support for Trump and was rewarded with regular interviews. Fox also enticed viewers with TMZ's Harvey Levin getting a guided tour of the president-elect's New York apartment.  Following Barack Obama's victories, Fox's post-election viewership dropped by 50 percent in 2012 and 36 percent in 2008, Nielsen said. The drop was 25 percent after Republican George W. Bush's 2004 win.  I'd also add that CNN's virtual abandonment of balanced news reporting has contributed to Fox's stronger position.  Watching many (but not all) of CNN's anchors and reporters has become psychologically painful and religiously impure.

ACADEMIC NEWS – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Hunter College’s Matthew Lasner and his husband Daniel Goldstein reportedly were involved in verbally thrashing Ivanka Trump on a JetBlue flight earlier today at New York’s JFK Airport.  The couple (and their child) were removed from the plane as a result.  Lasner is an associate professor in Hunter’s Department of Urban Policy and Planning. He earned his PhD in Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning from Harvard.  The professor had tweeted that Goldstein was “chasing down” Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner (who had their kids with them), “to harass them.” Lasner has since deleted his account.  It's inspiring to see who's teaching our college students, right?

SNOWFLAKES OF THE WORLD UNITE – FROM CAMPUS REFORM:  Students at the University of Maryland have released a list of 64 demands in their effort make the campus more amenable to “marginalized student populations.”  The project, known as ProtectUMD, is a collaborative effort between 25 student organizations at the University of Maryland, including Students for Justice in Palestine, Bisexuals at Maryland, and the Black Student Union.  There are 64 demands across 8 subsets of students—Marginalized, American Indian, Black, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, Muslim, Pro-Palestine, and Undocumented—including scholarships for “students of marginalized communities,” a ban on Columbus Day, beginning every on-campus event with an acknowledgement that “this is Indigenous Land,” that African American professors get tenure, that preferred pronouns are included on rosters, and that “queer diversity training” is required.  Muslim students also want “one room in each major building designated for prayer” and “shuttle services to [the local mosque] for Muslim students to have access to a place of worship.”   You'll be glad to know that there are more items on the list.  I certainly think that one just demand that should be added is for an unlimited supply of diapers and pacifiers.

December 22, 2016       Permalink

SMART MOVE BY WALMART – AT 10:23 A.M. ET:   Alert police organizations have put the heat on Walmart, and Walmart has done the right thing.  From AOL:

Walmart has said it would pull controversial clothing from its website after receiving a complaint from a police organization, reports CNN Money.

According to a national Fraternal Order of Police, or FOP, Twitter account, Chuck Canterbury, the group's national president, sent a letter on Tuesday to the retailer's CEO, Doug McMillon, about what he called "offensive shirts and sweatshirts with the slogans 'bulletproof' and 'black lives matter.'"

The request goes on to state, "I understand that these are third party sales and not Walmart products, but I am concerned that allowing these articles of clothing to be sold in this way will damage your company's good name amongst FOP members and other active and retired law enforcement officers."

In fact, the clothing was sold on Walmart.com, but it has been traced to a Connecticut-based company called Old Glory Merchandise, reports the Washington Post.

COMMENT:   It would be nice if the mainstream media would do some full, honest reports on the Black Lives Matter movement.  It is a radical, leftist movement, reminiscent of the old Red groups, with a wide and extreme political agenda.  To the best of my knowledge, it doesn't save black lives, and only seems interested in those that have political value.  Walmart should not be promoting that crowd.

December 22, 2016       Permalink 

ACTUAL POLITICAL REPORTING – AT 9:57 A.M. ET:  Dems continue to live in their fantasy world.  It is inconceivable to many of them that anyone could vote against their candidate.  Why, it's unintellectual, it's not politically correct, it's racist!  From the great Salena Zito in the New York Post:

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Democrats’ belief that new information revealed after Donald Trump’s election — as when the reports of Russian interference spurred calls on the left for a revote or, failing that, for “faithless” electors to abandon Trump — would change voters’ minds has taken another hit.

A Pew Research survey Wednesday showed a whopping 97 percent of all voters would cast the exact same vote they did on Election Day, including 99 percent of Trump voters and 96 percent of Clinton voters. As with the recount that saw Clinton lose votes and the Electoral College vote that saw her lose electors, only 1 percent of Trump voters regret their vote, while 4 percent of Clinton voters do.

Voters seem ready to move on.

Not so some on the left....Indeed, Team Clinton — Hillary, Bill, campaign chair John Podesta and others — are still casting blame on FBI Director James Comey, for reopening the investigation into Hillary’s email during the home stretch of the election.

They still prefer that to the introspection they so sorely need: asking themselves why they ignored or haughtily dismissed so many voters.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  Salena Zito is only now getting the recognition she deserves as one of the best political reporters around.  She gets it.

December 22, 2016       Permalink

GREAT APPOINTMENT – AT 9:48 A.M. ET:  Kellyanne Conway, who saved and directed the Trump victory campaign, will be counselor to the president in the new administration.  Trump has made a wise choice.  From Fox: 

Kellyanne Conway, the indefatigable campaign operative who became the face of Donald Trump's successful presidential bid, has been named counselor to the president.

Conway, who joined Trump's team as campaign manager in August, announced earlier this week on Fox News she was moving from her New Jersey home to Washington, signaling a pending position in the incoming Trump administration. Thursday's announcement from the transition team laid out her new role.

"Kellyanne Conway has been a trusted advisor and strategist who played a crucial role in my victory," Trump said in a statement released Thursday morning. "She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message. I am pleased that she will be part of my senior team in the West Wing."

Conway will work with senior administration officials to communicate and execute Trump's legislative priorities, the statement said.

Conway told "Fox & Friends" on Thursday that she will be in the West Wing to "continue my service" to Trump. She said she had weighed a number of factors including her family in considering a job, but described the West Wing-in-waiting as family friendly, saying, "So I'm fine on that score."

COMMENT:  She's bright, unflappable, and  brought experience and wisdom to the campaign.  She will bring the same to the Trump presidency. 

Some pseudo-feminists criticized her for bringing up family concerns in deciding whether to take the job.  As usual, Kellyanne won the day, looking wise and mature, while the pseudos looked cold and cynical.,

December 22,  2016     Permalink