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DECEMBER 22,  2017

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

GOOD! FROM FOX:  Attorney General Jeff Sessions is launching a review of a law enforcement initiative called Project Cassandra after an investigative report was published this week claiming the Obama administration gave a free pass to Hezbollah’s drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations to help ensure the Iran nuclear deal would stay on track.  The Justice Department said in a statement to Fox News that Sessions on Friday directed a review of prior Drug Enforcement Administration investigations “to evaluate allegations that certain matters were not properly prosecuted and to ensure all matters are appropriately handled.”  “While I am hopeful that there were no barriers constructed by the last administration to allowing DEA agents to fully bring all appropriate cases under Project Cassandra, this is a significant issue for the protection of Americans,” Sessions said in a written statement. “We will review these matters and give full support to investigations of violent drug trafficking organizations.”  A full investigation is called for, possibly leading to prosecutions. 

DISGRACEFUL – FROM FOX:  As President Trump pushes forward with his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall, companies competing for the chance to work on the multi-billion-dollar project are facing mounting boycotts from local Democratic lawmakers moving to blacklist the border builders.  Coordinated efforts have been launched in California, Arizona, Illinois, New York and Rhode Island that would prohibit cities and towns from doing any official business with the companies as part of a larger resistance strategy to delay construction of the controversial wall.  Most recently, Berkeley’s City Council in California approved an ordinance that would ban it from contracting with companies involved in the construction.  This is utter contempt for the people of the United States.  It moves the once-great Democratic Party further and further to the left.

NBA BOOMS – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   While the NFL gets socked with ratings declines, the NBA is off to its second-most-watched season ever.  ESPN, which has telecast 30 games since the season’s Oct. 17 opener, said Thursday that average viewership has soared 18 percent, to 1.8 million a game, from this point last year.  TNT, with 16 NBA telecasts to date, said its average is up 25 percent, to 2.1 million viewers. Even NBA TV, with 41 telecasts, is up 25 percent, to 365,000.  The averages, taken collectively, make for the hottest start since the 2010-11 season — the year LeBron James abandoned the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.  The NFL is fading, cursed by political displays by some players during the national anthem, and tone-deafness by league management.  This may not be fixable.

December 22, 2017       Permalink

NOTHING TO SEE, NOTHING TO SEE – AT 12:58 P.M. ET:   There has been a terror incident in Australia.  From the New York Post: 

The man who plowed an SUV into a crowd of Christmas shoppers in Australia told cops he carried out the attack as retaliation for the “mistreatment of Muslims,” officials said Friday.

Saeed Noori, 32, injured 19 people — three critically — when he sped his vehicle into a busy intersection in downtown Melbourne outside the city’s main train station just before 5 p.m. Thursday.

Noori, an Afghan who was granted entry into Australia in 2004 as a refugee and became a citizen two years later, made the comments to police after he was arrested.

“He has said that he attributes his actions to the perceived mistreatment of Muslims,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.

Despite the comments, officials say Noori — who has a history of mental illness — has no known links to any extremist groups and he was not on intelligence agencies’ list of potential terror suspects.

“At this stage . . . apart from that statement there are no known links to any political issues or any links to extremist groups,” Turnbull said.

Noori, according to officials, also made references to God and Australia’s domestic security service following his arrest.

COMMENT:  Ah yes, no known "links."  A lone wolf.  Just a guy out for a ride.  That is total garbage.  As we have said here before, there's no such thing as a lone wolf.  The people who plow cars into crowds for the sake of Allah didn't get that idea while daydreaming.  They were radicalized by some source.  And they all spout the same line.

This is a new kind of asymmetrical warfare.  The soldier, seemingly alone but influenced carefully by others, carrying out a deadly attack.  Let's stop with the "no links" argument.  You don't have to have a membership card and a lapel pin to be a murderer.

December 22, 2017       Permalink

SIGNED – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:   The president signed the tax-reform bill in the Oval Office this morning, making it into law.  It caps a year that began unsteadily, and ends in triumph.  From the Daily Mail: 

President Donald Trump signed his tax cut bill on Friday morning in the Oval Office with little fanfare in his final order of business before the start of his Christmas holiday away from the White House.

Calling it 'the biggest tax cut, the biggest reform of all time' he said 'the numbers will speak' for themselves when taxpayers start to see results.

'I think it's selling itself,' Trump said of the landmark legislation. 'It's becoming very popular. You'll see something on February 1 when they open up the paycheck.'

Rather than holding an elaborate signing ceremony in early January, he said he rushed to turn the bill into law before December 25 to honor a pledge to make tax cuts his Christmas present to the American people.

'I didn't want you folks to say that I wasn't keeping my promise,' he told the press. 'I'm keeping my promise. I'm signing the bill before Christmas.'

And in a holiday truce with the journalists he loves to hate, he distributed official signing pens to some of them. 

'Many of you have worked very fairly, and we appreciate that,' Trump said. 

COMMENT:  The Dems don't appear to have learned anything.  They're already describing the tax bill as the greatest calamity in the history of the Universe, and any other Universes they may find. 

The bill has to produce, and I think it will.  Already some companies are starting to give unexpected bonuses to employees.  That's the right spirit.

December 22, 2017       Permalink

I LOVE IT – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  Nikki Haley is terrific, the best ambassador to the UN we've had since Daniel Patrick Moynihan.  Nikki believes in representing this country to the max.  She hasn't drunk the State Department poison that turns ambassadors into mush masters, constantly genuflecting before the "international community."

Following yesterday's vote against the United States by the sheep in the General Assembly, Nikki immediately sent an invitation to those who voted for us, abstained, or refused to vote, to come to a reception to thank them for their friendship.  Reward your friends, punish your enemies.  From Fox: 

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley sent an invitation Thursday to the 65 countries who didn’t vote against the United States in the U.N. General Assembly vote to denounce President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The invitation to the Jan. 3 reception marked a symbolic step of the U.S. taking note of who supports the country and who doesn’t.

Haley’s email invitation, which has been obtained by Fox News, asks the nations who voted no, abstained from voting or didn’t cast a vote “to a reception to thank you for your friendship to the United States.”

The General Assembly voted 128-9, with 35 abstentions, in favor of declaring Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital "null and void." 21 countries were absent during the vote.

Earlier Thursday, Haley, who has adopted an aggressive stance at the world body on U.S. priorities, took to Twitter to voice her appreciation to the countries who didn’t vote against the U.S. “for not falling to the irresponsible ways of the @UN.”

COMMENT:  Great style.  A former, outstanding governor of South Carolina, she's already being talked about as a future president.   I'm in.

December 22,  2017     Permalink

DECEMBER 21,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:48 P.M. ET:

CHARGE AGAINST TRUMP TOSSED – FROM DAILY CALLER:    A federal court in New York City has dismissed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump that alleged his failure to divest from the Trump business empire violated anti-corruption provisions of the Constitution.  U.S. District Judge George Daniels, a Clinton administration appointee, ruled Thursday that the case could not proceed because the plaintiffs could not prove that Trump’s actions tangibly harmed their businesses.  The lawsuit was brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an anti-Trump watchdog group formerly led by Clinton ally David Brock. A number of accomplished lawyers and legal scholars participated in the effort, including Professor Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, and Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House.  People who lose elections are increasingly turning to the courts for comfort, but are often disappointed.

HOW EXCITING – FROM DAILY CALLER:   A New York Times contributor cranked the President Donald Trump-hysteria-meter to 11 on Thursday when he wrote the president “and his allies seem on the verge of staging a coup against independent institutions and the rule of law.”  In the column “The Real Coup Plot Is Trump’s,” New York Times contributor and Harvard University lecturer Yascha Mounk warns readers about the upcoming assault on American democracy that the president is plotting.  Fox News host Jesse Watters recently claimed that in the midst of all the alleged bias within the FBI, that “we have a coup on our hands in America.”  Mounk doesn’t cite any evidence that Trump is preparing to fire special counsel Robert Mueller — the president, after all, has said repeatedly that he doesn’t intend to.  If you dare criticize Mueller, you are making yourself an “active accomplice in a deliberate assault on our democracy,” according to the New York Times op-ed.  Trump Derangement Syndrome is becoming a serious disease, but there is no coverage under Obamacare unless you agree to a sex-change operation.

COMMON SENSE – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   The University of Minnesota has disavowed a set of guidelines issued by one of its academic departments labeling holiday symbols such as Christmas trees, doves and dreidels as “religious iconography” inappropriate for a school setting.  The school’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resources Sciences recently issued a set of guidelines that encouraged employees to “recognize holidays in ways that are respectful of the diversity of our community,” Campus Reform first reported.  The department included a list of “religious iconography” that shouldn’t be included in holiday parties, such as Santa Claus, Christmas trees, bows/wrapped gifts, bells, doves, dreidels, and green and red color schemes.  The list made the rounds on conservative media sites as evidence of an academic “War on Christmas,” but the university on Thursday distanced itself from the controversy.The guidelines were “the actions of a single employee, whose attempt at a diversity training session was, to be blunt, ill advised,” and “does not constitute a policy on the part of the university,” the school told Campus Reform in a statement.  The school handled the outrage reasonably, although late.  At least we weren't told that Christmas was racist, and part of a Zionist plot.

December 21, 2017       Permalink

WAKE-UP CALL FOR MEDIA – AT 4:33 P.M. ET:  Is it possible?  Are some media types waking up to the fact that we have a serious president in the White House?  From Fox:   

I have sensed for weeks now that some in the media were on the verge of rolling out a contrary take on President Trump’s first year in office.

And in the wake of yesterday’s final passage of massive tax cuts, that moment has arrived.
The dominant media narrative, of course, is that Trump hasn’t gotten much done, that he’s in over his head, that he doesn’t understand government, that he keeps picking petty fights rather than winning big battles.

But the thing about the pundits is that they get tired of pushing the same line, week after week, month after month. Some inevitably want to seize credit for a new insight, for getting ahead of the pack with a burst of contrarian wisdom.

And that hot take is, hey, maybe Trump has gotten some important things done after all.

It’s true that the president had not gotten much from the Republican Congress this year. But a new law that cuts taxes for businesses and individuals—even though the measure polls poorly and is not mainly aimed at the middle class—puts an end to the verdict that Trump doesn’t know how to work the Hill. Like it or not, this is a sprawling piece of legislation that was quickly pushed through the House and Senate in a show of party-line muscle.

Trump hasn’t gotten much credit for the record-breaking stock market, but there is now some recognition that Dow-Almost-25,000 can’t be completely divorced from his policies. And there’s starting to be a greater appreciation for the president’s progress on slashing regulations and appointing judges (even though three nominees recently had to withdraw, one because he couldn’t answer a Senate panel’s questions about basic court procedures).

COMMENT:  Well stated.  I wouldn't want to exaggerate the change, but I've even seen a few CNN commentators start to treat the president more seriously.  I doubt if The New York Times will ever change, and MSNBC is hopeless.  But there are good signs.

The good signs will grow if the president continues to do good work. 

December 21, 2017       Permalink 

GOOD FOR SENATOR SCOTT! – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  One technique the left loves to use is to shame any member of a minority group who becomes a conservative.  Must not have that.  Disloyal.  You must stick with groupthink. 

Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina will have none of it, having just been a major fighter for President Trump's tax-reform package.  From Daily Caller: 

After the House passed a historic tax reform bill Wednesday, key members of the Republican caucus headed over to the White House for a victory lap. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan were there along with a multitude of senators and congressmen who had a major hand in passage of the ultimate bill.

President Trump also delivered remarks from the south side of the White House, during which Tim Scott, Republican senator from South Carolina, stood behind his left shoulder. Scott was a served as one of the key advocates for the bill during heated debates on the senate floor and cable news over the last few months.  

However, some online commenters did not appreciate Scott in the background of the speech. Huffington Post contributor and political and pop culture analyst Andy Ostroy had a particularly bad take on Scott’s presence, calling the senator a “manipulated prop” for being the “ONE black person” standing by Trump:

“What a shocker. There’s one black person standing there, and sure enough they have him standing right next to the mic like a manipulated prop.”

Tim Scott hit back on Twitter with pure fire:

“Uh, probably because I helped write the bill for the past year, have multiple provisions included, got multiple senators on board over the past week, and have worked on tax reform my entire time in Congress. But if you’d rather see my skin color, please feel free.”

COMMENT:  Love the guy.

December 21, 2017       Permalink

WE'RE STARTING TO SEE MORE STORIES LIKE THIS – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  We have an excellent secretary of defense, and he's overseeing a major buildup against North Korea.  Finally, there are people on our side who are taking this threat seriously.  From the New York Post: 

The US is preparing plans to deliver a “bloody nose” attack against North Korea to knock out its nuclear weapons program.

The White House has “dramatically” ramped up its military plans amid fears that diplomacy won’t thwart North Korean despot Kim Jong Un from making good on his threats, sources told the UK’s Telegraph.

One option is destroying a launch site before the rogue regime uses it for a new missile test, while another is targeting weapons stockpiles, according to the news outlet.

The Trump administration hopes that pre-emptive action would show the trigger-happy dictator that the United States is serious about stopping his bellicose pursuits and persuading him to negotiate.

The Telegraph cited three anonymous sources, one inside the administration and two former officials familiar with the White House thinking.

“The Pentagon is trying to find options that would allow them to punch the North Koreans in the nose, get their attention and show that we’re serious,” a former US security official briefed on policy told the Telegraph.

President Trump’s decision to launch 59 cruise missiles against a Syrian airfield in response to the country’s chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 civilians is considered an indication of his resolve, the paper reported.

COMMENT:  One can't imagine Field Marshal Obama or Grand Admiral Kerry thinking this way.  But it's the only way to think realistically, in the face of a rogue regime like North Korea.

Of course, it didn't have to be this way.  For years, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, we engaged in a "peace process" with North Korea that went absolutely nowhere.  During the years of "negotiations," the Koreans developed the atomic bomb and is now developing the ICBM's to carry them.  Wow.  What a success.  And if the Dems get back into power, we will have that same "peace process" once more.  Talk much and lose.

December 21,  2017     Permalink