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DECEMBER 27,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE –  AT 10:08 P.M. ET:

NO ALOHA – FROM FOX:   Honolulu’s Café 8 ½ gets rave reviews on Yelp for its “Radiatore Verde” and “Italian stir fry,” among other popular dishes at the eclectic mom-and-pop restaurant – but the response to its new 'policy' barring pro-Trump patrons has been decidedly more mixed.  A bright yellow, handmade sign posted on the restaurant's front glass door declares: “If you voted for Trump you cannot eat here! No Nazis.”  A photo of the sign was shared with FoxNews.com. One also is proudly posted on the café’s Facebook page, and was “liked” by some 40 people.  “…The next time you're in Honolulu, eat lunch here, not only are they on the right side of things, the food is delicious and reasonable,” one Facebook user wrote next to the photo.  Others aren’t so charmed.  Honolulu resident and Donald Trump voter Susan Roberts told FoxNews.com she found the sign in “extreme poor taste.”  “It's childish and very unprofessional,” she said in an email. “… The restaurant owner doesn't have to worry ... I will not be stepping foot in that establishment.”  Willes Lee, former chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party and now president of National Federation of Republican Assemblies, told FoxNews.com the sign is discriminatory, and harkens back to “racist and hate-filled” days before statehood.  “Remember when Filipinos couldn't go in certain places, or Japanese wouldn't be allowed [in] many homes? And, it didn't matter who they voted for,” said Lee, who is of Japanese descent.  The anti-Trump crowd is vastly overplaying its hand.  The man hasn't even been inaugurated.

WASHINGTON POST EXPANDING – FROM AFP:   Washington (AFP) - The Washington Post, purchased three years ago by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will turn a profit in 2016 and expand its newsroom, defying the downward trend in the newspaper industry.  A memo to staff this month from Post publisher Fred Ryan, obtained by AFP, said the newspaper has been helped by its digital efforts and will be launching new "initiatives" in the coming year.  "Thanks to the incredible work of the entire team, the Washington Post will finish this year as a profitable and growing company," Ryan said in the memo.   "In addition to reinforcing our belief that there is a viable business model in quality journalism, this will provide additional funding for several new initiatives that build upon the successes of this year."  The newsroom was "larger this year than last year, and it will grow even more next year," he added.  I'm willing to bet that virtually all the gain came from liberal readers seeking a safe space, rather than mature adults looking for good journalism.  While the Post has a better editorial page than the even-more-liberal New York Times, the paper never makes any effort to appeal to other than liberal readers.

TAKE THAT, VLAD – FROM ZEROHEDGE:   Just a week after Obama held a press conference announcing that he sent a stern warning to Vladimir Putin regarding his alleged "election hacking" efforts (see "Obama Told Putin To "Cut It Out" On Hacking"), the Washington Post is reporting that the Obama administration is close to announcing a series of economic sanctions and other measures to punish Russia for its "interference" in the 2016 presidential election. Quoting "U.S. officials," WaPo said that an announcement from the Obama administration could come as early as this week and would likely include "covert cyber operations."  Gee, you think this is a little late?  The obvious reason for the move is not to punish Russia, but to put President Trump in a position where only Trump could remove the sanctions, thus straining his pretty good relationship with Putin.  I have no problem with straining relations with Putin, but this is a tacky way to do it.  It's the Obama style – direct from the Chicago City Council.

December 27, 2016       Permalink

THE TRUMP EFFECT – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:   More good news for American workers.  From AP:

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese electronics company Panasonic and U.S. electric car maker Tesla said Tuesday they plan to begin production of photovoltaic cells and modules at a factory in Buffalo, New York.

The two companies said they finalized an agreement calling for Tokyo-based Panasonic to pay capital costs for the manufacturing. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla made a "long-term purchase commitment" to Panasonic.

Their statement gave no financial figures.

The factory in Buffalo is under development by SolarCity Corp., a San Mateo, California-based solar panel company owned by Tesla. The PV cells and modules it produces will be used in solar panels for non-solar roof products and solar glass tile roofs that Tesla plans to begin making, the announcement said.

Production is due to begin in mid-2017. Tesla said it will create 1,400 jobs in Buffalo, 500 in manufacturing and plans further expansion in Buffalo.

Panasonic also is to work with Tesla on next-generation technology, the companies said.

COMMENT:  I can't absolutely guarantee that Donald Trump had anything to do with this specific advance, but it's amazing how many announcements like this we're starting to see.  Companies want to be on the right side of the White House.

American workers are starting to benefit.  Since the Democratic elites don't know any American workers, they probably won't notice.

December 27, 2016        Permalink

FAREWELL FROM A GREAT MAN – AT 9:50 A.M. ET:  Tom Sowell, the distinguished, conservative, African-American columnist, is giving up his Creators Syndicate column after 25 years.  He is 86, and has written some of the most thoughtful prose of our time.  Of course, being a black conservative, he is ignored by the trendies in journalism.   In his farewell column, Mr. Sowell gives us this recollection:

With all the advances of blacks over the years, nothing so brought home to me the social degeneration in black ghettos like a visit to a Harlem high school some years ago.

When I looked out the window at the park across the street, I mentioned that, as a child, I used to walk my dog in that park. Looks of horror came over the students’ faces, at the thought of a kid going into the hell hole that park had become in their time.

When I have mentioned sleeping out on a fire escape in Harlem during hot summer nights, before most people could afford air-conditioning, young people have looked at me like I was a man from Mars. But blacks and whites alike had been sleeping out on fire escapes in New York since the 19th century. They did not have to contend with gunshots flying around during the night.

We cannot return to the past, even if we wanted to, but let us hope that we can learn something from the past to make for a better present and future.

Goodbye and good luck to all.

COMMENT:  And good luck to you, Mr. Sowell.  I wish you had been listened to by more of our intellectual "leaders."

December 27,  2016     Permalink

STATE OF THE NATION – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  Is violence becoming the new normal for the holiday season?  From AP:

BEACHWOOD, Ohio (AP) — Fights broke out at malls around the country Monday night sending shoppers, who were looking for post-holiday deals, scrambling for the exits.

No one was seriously injured in the mall melees, which, during the panic, also prompted numerous false reports of gunfire.

Police in Ohio told Cleveland.com that officers used pepper spray to disperse a large crowd following a fight at an upscale shopping mall in Beachwood, just outside of Cleveland.

A report of shots fired was later determined to be unfounded.

One male juvenile was arrested for allegedly trying to hit an officer during the incident, which police said appeared to have been "loosely organized on social media."

There were similar disturbances at malls around the country including in New York, New Jersey and North Carolina, where chaos erupted at a mall in Fayetteville and emergency medical personnel were called in to assist someone who had a medical episode while fleeing.

In Memphis, Tennessee, police arrested several people following fights at two malls there. No one was injured and no gunshots were fired, despite reports indicating otherwise.

"Somebody yelled 'gun!' and youths stampeded through the mall," Deputy Chief Terry Landrum told The Commercial Appeal.

Police in Aurora, Colorado, near Denver, evacuated a mall due to multiple skirmishes.

COMMENT:  These are understandable reactions to oppression.  Not being able to get one's desired bargain on December 26th is a form of oppression, as listed in the Guinness Book of Excuses, 43rd edition.  Check it out. 

Says something about our society that we've begun to accept this degeneration.  Daniel Patrick Moynihan called it "defining deviancy down."

December 27, 2016     Permalink

DECEMBER 26,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:09 P.M. ET: 

OUR TERMINALLY OBNOXIOUS PRESIDENT – FROM FOX:   President Obama suggested in an exit interview with his former top adviser that, had he been able to run, he could have won a third term in the White House.  Describing his confidence in an America that is “tolerant” and “full of energy,” Obama said: “I am confident in this vision because I'm confident that … if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.”  President-elect Donald Trump fired back Monday in a tweet: "He should say that but I say NO WAY!" He cited the rise of the Islamic State terror group and trouble with Obama administration agenda items including ObamaCare.  There is no end to Obama's ego.  He makes Trump look modest.  I'm sure Hillary Clinton will appreciate Obama's comments, contrasting his political prowess with hers.  I wonder if they'll ever talk again.

PREACH IT, DONALD, PREACH IT! – FROM AP:  WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Days after the United Nations voted to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Donald Trump questioned its effectiveness Monday, saying it's just a club for people to "have a good time."  The president-elect wrote on Twitter that the U.N. has "such great potential," but it has become "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!"  On Friday, Trump warned, "As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th," referring to the day he takes office.  The decision by the Obama administration to abstain from Friday's U.N. vote brushed aside Trump's demands that the U.S. exercise its veto and provided a climax to years of icy relations with Israel's leadership.  Of course, the usual suspects are coming to the UN's defense, with arguments about as logical as the claim that Mussolini made the trains run on time.  On the big issues, the UN is as much a failure as the League of Nations.  If we drastically cut our "contributions," a good signal would be sent.

AMERICANS TURN OPTIMISTIC ABOUT 2017 – FROM AP:   A look at the key findings of the Associated Press-Times Square Alliance poll:  Americans weren't thrilled with 2016. Only 18 percent said things for the country got better, 33 percent said things got worse, and 47 percent said it was unchanged from 2015.  On a personal level, they were optimistic about 2017.  Fifty-five percent said they believe things will be better for them in the coming year than in the year that just concluded. That's a 12-point improvement from last year's poll.  Americans interviewed about the poll's results expressed some of that optimism."Next year will be better than this year, because people will have more jobs and they'll have more money to spend," said Bourema Tamboura, a Harlem resident behind the wheel of a New York car service.  "I'm hoping 2017 will be better," added Elizabeth Flynn, 62, an elementary schoolteacher from Peabody, Massachusetts. "You've got to be optimistic, and I'm going to try."  Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say 2016 was worse for the country than 2015. And Republicans are especially likely to feel that 2017 will be even better for them personally.  University of Miami professor Benjamin Alsup said he needed only three words to explain why 2016 felt worse for him: "Trump, Trump, Trump!"   Trump's election is driving a new optimism.  I hope it's justified, and that the media doesn't disparage any progress that Trump brings.

December 26,  2016     Permalink

YUMMY – THIS IS SOMETHING WE ANTICIPATE WITH GLEE – AT 9:43 A.M. ET:   President-elect Trump has vast opportunities to reshape the federal judicial system.  He should pounce.  From the Daily Mail: 

Donald Trump will be able to fill more than 100 vacancies in the federal courts when he takes office next month.

Trump will walk into the White House as there are a total of 103 empty seats on courts, in addition to the lingering Supreme Court vacancy after the death of Antonin Scalia.

The triple-digit figure is staggeringly almost double the number President Barack Obama had to fill - 54- when he replaced George W. Bush in the Oval Office.

Conservative leaders are already hoping Trump will pick people to further push their ideals on a number of key issues - such as gun control, women's health and rights, immigration, and voter restriction, the Washington Post reports.

'I'm optimistic he'll come at this right out of the gate,' Judicial Crisis Network chief counsel Carrie Severino said.

'Every president can expect to make a huge impact. [Trump] is unique in having campaigned really hard on this issue — the significance of the courts, and of the Supreme Court in particular.'
Severino's group has been staunchly against many of President Obama's court appointments.

COMMENT:  I winced a bit at some of the language used in the article just quoted.  The Daily Mail is British, but has been excellent in much of its American reporting.  However, some of its copy retains the taint of the British left.  Terms like "voter restriction" are inflammatory and inaccurate.  The usual anti-Americans in the foreign press will double down on Trump, having given the "third-world" Obama something of a pass.  They are, like the elites generally, about 50 years out of date, give or take a generation.

December 26,  2016     Permalink

OBAMA'S LAST STAND – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:   He will try to do as much damage as he possibly can in his final weeks.  From Fox: 

A flurry of big decisions out of the Obama administration just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office has rekindled Republican concerns about President Obama’s plans for jamming through so-called “midnight regulations” and other leftover items from his wish-list on his way out the door.

In the last week alone, the Obama administration blocked future oil and gas leases in swaths of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans; granted a record number of pardons and commutations for a single day; and scrapped a dormant registry for male immigrants from a list of largely Muslim countries.

Defense officials told Fox News there is an effort underway to transfer up to 22 additional detainees out of Guantanamo Bay. And Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations stunned Israel on Friday by abstaining on a Security Council measure condemning settlement activity, allowing it to pass.

And Obama still has a month left in office. The most recent announcements were made while the first family was on vacation in Hawaii – leaving unclear what Obama has in store for when he gets back to Washington.

Hanging over any final actions is the likelihood that Trump, once in office, will roll back many of them. “The things he’s done this week will be turned around,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said of Obama on “Fox News Sunday.” “He’s in this desperate frenzy.”

But Democrats are urging the outgoing president to pursue further actions, as the administration weighs its next steps.

COMMENT:  Obama has shown little regard for Democratic process or the will of the American people.  He does through executive action what should really be done through Congress.  He will be applauded as he leaves office by the leftovers from a past world.  A nothingburger.  A historical asterisk.

December 26, 2016       Permalink

ANOTHER WEEKEND IN CHICAGO – AT 8:07 A.M. ET:  And not just another weekend, but Christmas weekend.  And the weekend after the announcement that President Obama will make his farewell speech in Chicago, his hometown (for a while).  From The New York Times:

At least 27 people were shot, seven fatally, in a 48-hour period in Chicago over Christmas weekend, according to the Chicago Police Department. It was the latest bloody chapter in a city besieged by gun violence.

Killings and shootings, already an all-too-common hazard in the city, have skyrocketed since last year, when the numbers were already high. The rise in violence is fueled in part by gangs, whose disagreements range from neighborhood turf wars to disputes over girlfriends. The conflicts often escalate quickly to gunfire.

This weekend, one of the victims was an 18-year-old Hispanic man who was shot multiple times in the neck and back while he was driving in the Gage Park neighborhood, on the city’s southwest side, at 1:30 a.m. Christmas Day.

His death would become another entry in a police log of murder investigations, many with no suspects in custody.

Officer Jose Estrada, a spokesman with the Chicago Police Department, said in a telephone interview Sunday that the total number of homicides this year was 745, a 56 percent increase from 476 at the same time last year. This year was the first time in nearly two decades that more than 700 homicides had been recorded in the city, the Chicago Tribune reported this month.

Estrada said the total number of shooting victims stood at 4,252, up 47 percent from 2,884 at the same time in 2015. Data of the shootings over Christmas weekend logged by the Chicago Tribune reflected a relentless crime blotter: Nearly all the people shot were men, the majority younger than 30.

COMMENT:  Of course, it's all the fault of the gun manufacturers.  Or oppression.  Or Israeli settlements.  Or something.

I wonder if Obama will have the courage to mention the near-collapse of his hometown on his watch.  Maybe he'll even stick his neck out and ask why New York was able to put such a huge dent in its crime problem, and Chicago hasn't.  Does the name Rudy Giuliani strike you? 

December 26,  2016     Permalink