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DECEMBER 24,  2016

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

GOODNESS – FROM NPR:    Most restaurants close their doors for Christmas day, but one is leaving theirs wide open: Shish Restaurant in southeast London.  On Dec. 25, they will be serving free, three-course meals to the homeless and elderly.  The idea came after an emotional encounter between two of the managers and an elderly woman.  "What she said was, 'On Christmas day, I'm going to be alone,' " Manager Irfan Can Genc tells NPR's Allison Aubrey on All Things Considered. "When [the other manager] told me about this I was like, 'Look, we need to sit down. No one should be alone on a special day like this.' "  So they took a piece of paper and wrote a simple sign saying, "No one eats alone on a Christmas Day! We are here to sit with you."  A great spirit. 

ABSURD – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Sometimes it seems the word “Christmas” is like poison to universities. This latest example is no exception.  The University of California Riverside recently hosted a “Staff Assembly Holiday Hoedown,” and pictures posted on the institution’s website show organizers bent over backward to make sure it could not be accused of being a Christmas party.  “Handkerchiefs, boots, and cowboy hats set the stage for the 2016 Staff Assembly Holiday Hoedown, which treated about 400 employees to an afternoon of games, food, dancing, and prizes,” reports Inside UCR. “This year’s holiday party — featuring live music by Gold Rush Country — took place on Dec. 16 at the HUB.”  The tables were decked with red and white handkerchiefs and some straw. Many guests wore cowboy hats and flannel shirts. A photo opportunity area was adorned with haystacks. The only thing that denoted Christmas were a few white strands of lights and some small wreaths, but they were carefully flanked by Texas Longhorn skulls.  How intellectual.  How deep.  These universities have the intellectual maturity of eight-year-olds.

A GREAT CHRISTMAS STORY – FROM CBS:  Much too long to repeat here, but do read it.  One of the best Christmas stories I've read.

December 24, 2016        Permalink

OBAMA'S POLITICAL LEGACY – AT 1:32 P.M. ET:  If you want to assign a name to the political destruction of the Democratic Party, that name would be Barack Obama.  The facts of Obama's political legacy are staggering.  From AP:   

WASHINGTON (AP) — In boasting about his tenure in the White House, President Barack Obama often cites numbers like these: 15 million new jobs, a 4.9 percent unemployment rate and 74 months of consecutive job growth.

There's one number you will almost never hear: More than 1,030 seats.

That's the number of spots in state legislatures, governor's mansions and Congress lost by Democrats during Obama's presidency.

It's a statistic that reveals an unexpected twist of the Obama years: The leadership of the one-time community organizer and champion of ground-up politics was rough on the grassroots of his own party. When Obama exits the White House, he'll leave behind a Democratic Party that languished in his shadow for years and is searching for itself.

"What's happened on the ground is that voters have been punishing Democrats for eight solid years — it's been exhausting," said South Carolina state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, who lost two gubernatorial campaigns to Nikki Haley, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for ambassador to the U.N. "If I was talking about a local or state issue, voters would always lapse back into a national topic: Barack Obama."

When Obama won the presidency, his election was heralded as a moment of Democratic dominance — the crashing of a conservative wave that had swept the country since the dawn of the Reagan era.

Democrats believed that the coalition of young, minority and female voters who swept Obama into the White House would usher in something new: an ascendant Democratic majority that would ensure party gains for decades to come.

The coalition, it turns out, was Obama's alone.

After this year's elections, Democrats hold the governor's office and both legislative chambers in just five coastal states: Oregon, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware. Republicans have the trifecta in 25, giving them control of a broad swath of the middle of the country.

The defeats have all but wiped out a generation of young Democrats, leaving the party with limited power in statehouses and a thin bench to challenge an ascendant GOP majority eager to undo many of the president's policies. To be sure, the president's party almost always loses seats in midterm elections. But, say experts, Obama's tenure has marked the greatest number of losses under any president in decades.

COMMENT:  That's the best summary of the Democratic dilemma that I've read.  The story is in the numbers.  It will take decades for the Democrats to rebuild, if in fact their party survives the 2018 midterms.  I would not be shocked to see a new party, actually run by grown-ups.

December 24, 2016       Permalink

HOORAY FOR? – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:   Could it be?  Is it true?  According to The New York Times, reportedly a newspaper, Hollywood is reaching out to the faithful.  I hope there's some accuracy here: 

On the surface, Hollywood is a land of loose morals, where materialism rules, sex and drugs are celebrated on screen (and off), and power players can have a distant relationship with the truth. But movie studios and their partners have quietly — very quietly, sometimes to the degree of a black ops endeavor — been building deep connections to Christian filmgoers who dwell elsewhere on the spectrum of politics and social values. In doing so, they have tapped churches, military groups, right-leaning bloggers and, particularly, a fraternity of marketing specialists who cut their teeth on overtly religious movies but now put their influence behind mainstream works like “Frozen,” “The Conjuring,” “Sully” and “Hidden Figures.”

The marketers are writing bullet points for sermons, providing footage for television screens mounted in sanctuaries and proposing Sunday school lesson plans. In some cases, studios are even flying actors, costume designers and producers to megachurch discussion groups.

Hollywood’s awareness of its need to pay better attention to flyover-state audiences has grown even more urgent of late, as ultraliberal movie executives, shocked to see a celebrity-encircled Hillary Clinton lose the presidential election to Donald J. Trump, have realized the degree to which they are out of touch with a vast pool of Americans. Tens of millions of voters did not care what stars had to say in support of Mrs. Clinton.

Are those voters also ignoring the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep when they promote movies? Would they listen if it were a church leader telling them to buy a ticket instead?

Film companies can no longer afford to take any audience for granted. Despite a growing population, North America’s moviegoing has been more or less flat — not exactly what investors want to hear. Last year, 1.32 billion tickets were sold, up from the year before but down from the 10-year high of 1.42 billion in 2009, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. More troubling, cheaper and more convenient in-home entertainment options are threatening the grip that multiplexes have long had on young adults; the number of frequent moviegoers ages 12 to 24 has fallen for three consecutive years.

Hollywood is under pressure to reverse that trend. Churches may seem like an unusual path toward young people, but 41 percent of millennials engage in some form of daily prayer, according to a 2010 Pew Research paper. To reach them, many ministers have built vast social media networks. The Rev. Jamal H. Bryant, a megachurch pastor in Baltimore, has 250,000 followers on Twitter. (His church also has a smartphone app.)

COMMENT:  There was a time when Hollywood, including the TV component, was sensitive to religious tradition and "family values."  I don't want a return to the days of extreme censorship or the absurd barring of words like "pregnant" from the screen.  But a decent respect would be nice, and maybe we'll start to see it.

December 24, 2016       Permalink

A WARNING – AT 11:27 A.M. ET:  It's sad that warnings like this have to be issued on Christmas Eve, but that's the world we have.  From CBS local: 

WASHINGTON (CBS) — Federal authorities warned Friday that Islamic State of Iraq and Syria sympathizers “continue aspirational calls for attacks on holiday gatherings, including targeting churches.”

The bulletin was issued by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security and issued to law enforcement agencies and private security companies around the U.S.

There are no known specific, credible threats, U.S. law enforcement officials say. The bulletin was issued out of an abundance of caution given the public nature of the posted threats and the holiday season.

The bulletin was sent Friday to law enforcement after pro-ISIS websites had published a publicly-available list of churches in the United States.

The bulletin also describes the different signs of suspicious activity law enforcement should be aware of.

In the past, public threats by ISIS supporters have focused on military and law enforcement targets. The more recent threats have expanded to include the type of attacks we saw in Berlin, Nice, France, and Columbus, Ohio.

COMMENT:  I would take these warnings seriously.  In Europe and Australia some serious holiday plots have been broken up.  We are very vulnerable here during a presidential transition, and the current president is on another of his extended Hawaiian vacations, presumably resting up for the resting up that will follow January 20th. 

Eternal vigilance.

December 24,  2016     Permalink

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