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FEBRUARY 2,  2017

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

AND NOW THE EAST COAST'S TURN – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  The NYPD was out in full-force at NYU on Thursday night as protesters gathered to voice their disgust with conservative actor and Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who was inside holding a seminar for the school’s College Republicans.  “Just saw 4 vans of cops unload outside of the NYU Anti-Fa protest of Gavin McInnes’ talk,” Jason Miller tweeted at around 7 p.m. Thursday.  “They are threatening to arrest everyone in the herd now, each cop with roughly 8-10 zip ties in tow,” he said.  NYU Local, the university’s independent news source, also took to Twitter to alert the public of the situation taking place outside the Kimmel, Rosenthal Pavilion on Thursday night.  “Arrests happening outside of Kimmel,” they tweeted.  As of 9 p.m., it was still unclear how many people were taken into custody.  Looks like a repeat of the 1960s on our college campuses.  I don't see too many on the left denouncing the violence. 

REAL CLASS – FROM DAILY CALLER:    WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democratic Senate leaders refused to meet with Judge Neil Gorsuch Thursday.  The act appears to be revenge against Republicans for holding the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia open and not holding a hearing for Obama Supreme Court appointee Merrick Garland.  The White House requested that Gorsuch meet with Schumer, but aides said he declined in order to learn more about the nominee’s record, The Washington Post reported.  “By refusing to meet with Judge Gorsuch, Senate Democratic leadership is taking Washington gridlock and obstruction to a new low and placing Senators McCaskill, Donnelly, Heitkamp, Tester, and other Democrats up for reelection in 2018 on the endangered politicians list,” Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network, said in a statement.  Absolute lack of class.  The Democrats are doubling down on the kind of tactics and smallness that have placed them in the worst position their party has been in since 1920.

THE DYING PARTY – FROM DAILY CALLER:   After the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court drew some Democratic opposition this week, President Trump’s senior adviser predicted that it’s going to cost them in the end.  “The Democratic party — we’re seeing it unravel in front of our eyes, and we’re seeing it be revealed in front of our eyes,” Conway said during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” Thursday.  “[They are] a bunch of crybabies who say that they’re going to oppose Supreme Court nominees before they even know the person’s name and his academic credentials and his impeccable judicial record. They are holding up our nominees to the Cabinet. This obstinance and obstruction is the modern Democratic party.”  “I think it’s going to cost them because they’re hysterical about everything now,” she predicted. “Everything makes them cry and scream.”  She is right.  They should be sent back to running student governments at marginal high schools.  Obama put them where they are but they will never acknowledge it.

February 2, 2017       Permalink 

MORALE UP – AT 12:15 P.M. ET:  Occasionally there's good news from the US Government.  From the Washington Examiner: 

When the House Subcommittee on Government Operations held a hearing in April 2015 titled "The Worst Places to Work in the Federal Government," an agency manager at the Department of Homeland Security was called in to testify.

"[DHS] rests as the worst place to work among cabinet agencies," Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said at the time.

The third largest federal department had just received an abysmal 44 percent score in the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Fewer than half of its staff felt that morale, leadership and compensation deserved positive ratings.

But those days are gone, according to DHS employees and one senior administration official who spoke to the Washington Examiner on the condition of anonymity.

After President Trump issued his executive order temporarily barring immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, multiple reports suggested that DHS officials, along with staffers at other federal agencies, were not consulted prior to the roll-out and were not pleased with what transpired afterwards.

"The policy team at the White House developed the executive order on refugees and visas, and largely avoided the traditional interagency process that would have allowed the Justice Department and homeland security agencies to provide operational guidance," CNN had reported earlier this week.

Then came Tuesday's press conference with DHS Secretary John Kelly, a no-nonsense retired Marine Corps general who said the order "wasn't a surprise" and vowed to execute new and existing immigration laws "humanely and with professionalism."

Kelly's remarks to reporters, and his willingness to enforce laws that the administration believes will protect Americans, "re-energized a lot of us because for so long we've been vilified for doing our jobs, and here was someone finally standing up for us," said one Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who was not authorized to speak on the record.

COMMENT:  Yup.  New sheriff in town, and he's appointed a terrific secretary of DHS in John Kelly.  Agents will now be praised for doing their jobs, not vilified and endlessly second-guessed.

February 2,  2017     Permalink

A NOBLE CAUSE FOR TRUMP – AT 10:53 A.M. ET:   President Trump has been ridiculed and called a bigot for giving special attention to Christian refugees from the Mideast.  He is nothing of the kind.  The bigotry is in the nations receiving special vigilance, nations that routinely abuse their Christian populations.  From Fox: 

In the past year, the persecution of Christians has not only increased, but it has also spread to more corners of the globe – with incidents occurring on every continent, according to a new report.

The advocacy group Open Doors USA recently released the latest edition of its annual World Watch List, which ranks countries based on the treatment of their Christian populations. The group said the increase in incidents considered persecution was alarming and only getting worse.

"It is appalling that Open Doors has to report that persecution has increased again in 2016 and we are still at the worst levels of persecution in modern times," David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, said to Fox News. "The spread of persecution has gotten worse, now hitting nearly every continent in the world. There were 23 Christians killed in Mexico specifically because of their faith.”

The report comes on the heels of another study by the Center for Studies on New Religions that showed nearly 90,000 Christians were killed for their faith in 2016 and that as many as 600 million were prevented from practicing their faith through intimidation, forced conversions, bodily harm or even death.

“These numbers underscore what we already know," Robert Nicholson of the Philos Project, an advocacy group for Christianity in the Middle East, told Fox News at the time of the report’s release. "There are many places on Earth where being a Christian is the most dangerous thing you can be. Those who think of Christianity as a religion of the powerful need to see that in many places it’s a religion of the powerless. And the powerless deserve to be protected.”

COMMENT:  Absolutely.  And it's good to see some Christian organizations finally getting into action on this.  President Trump, in his immigration order, gave special emphasis to rescuing Christians from Mideast countries.  That isn't religious preference or discrimination.  It's citing a crisis, and responding to it.  We've done it before, as when we made Soviet Jewry a special cause in our dealings with Moscow, resulting in the freeing of Jews who wanted to leave the Soviet Union.  That wasn't religious preference, it was addressing a humanitarian crisis.

February 2,  2017     Permalink

GOOD FOR THE BRITS! – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:  This is one of the most fascinating, and encouraging, stories I've read recently.  Have you wondered about some of these "human rights" organizations and "human rights" lawyers who hang around making wild charges against soldiers and police officers that never seem to be substantiated?  Have you wondered about their real motives?

Now, to be sure, there are lawless soldiers.  That's why we have a military justice system.  And there are bad cops.  That's why police departments have internal affairs divisions.  But there are also false charges made by political activists and frauds, and they have destroyed the lives of decent soldiers and police officers.  In Britain, one of the phonies has been exposed...and punished.  From the Telegraph: 

A disgraced human rights lawyer accused of leading a witch-hunt against British troops in Iraq has been struck off after he was convicted of a string of professional misconduct charges.

Phil Shiner was found to have been repeatedly dishonest as he brought cases that British troops had killed, mutilated and tortured Iraqi civilians.

The former solicitor of the year had already admitted nine counts of acting without integrity and one of acting recklessly.

However, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on Thursday found another five counts of dishonesty.

He was then struck off the roll of solicitors and potentially opens the door to criminal charges over his conduct.

The two-day hearing was told he believed he was above the law and felt his work was so important he was not bound by the rules of his profession.

But the tribunal also heard his cases, which led to the £25m Al Sweady public inquiry, were found to be baseless and had a devastating effect on the soldiers falsely accused.

Mr Shiner did not attend the hearing, having written to the tribunal to say he was unwell and could not afford to pay for a defence lawyer.

And...

Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said: “Justice has finally been served after we took the unprecedented step of submitting evidence on his abuse of our legal system.

"Phil Shiner made soldiers’ lives a misery by pursuing false claims of torture and murder – now he should apologise. We will study any implications for outstanding legal claims closely.”

COMMENT:  We are reminded of one of the Ten Commandments:  "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."  It should be taken much more seriously here.  It should be taken much more seriously here.  We have seen far too many lives of police officers, students, and others, destroyed by false charges.  At least Britain has now nailed one culprit.

February 2, 2017       Permalink

FEBRUARY 1,  2017

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

AH, THE GOOD OLD DAYS – FROM CBS LOCAL:   BERKELEY, Calif. (CBS SF/AP) — Protesters armed with bricks and fireworks mounted an assault on the building hosting a speech by polarizing Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos Wednesday night, forcing the event’s cancellation.  Several injuries have been reported and at least four banks have been vandalized after demonstrators marched away from the scene of a violent protest at the canceled speaking event by controversial far-right writer and speaker Yiannopoulos on the University of California at Berkeley campus. UC Berkeley officials said the protest was infiltrated by vandals.  Yiannopoulos was making the last stop of a tour aimed at defying what he calls an epidemic of political correctness on college campuses.  With masked activists joining the already large group of protesters gathered in the area between Sather Gate and the north end of Telegraph Avenue as night fell, campus police were holding their positions near the entrance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union building hosting the event.  As the gathered crowd got more agitated, masked “black bloc” activists began hurling projectiles including bricks, lit fireworks and rocks at the building and police.  I'm sure many of you watched the action live on either CNN or Fox.  Right back to the 1960s.  What those juvenile delinquents don't realize is that their behavior simply strengthens President Trump.  I'd like to know if anyone will be expelled.  Probably not.

MAJOR STEP IN TRENDINESS – FROM BREITBART:   State-owned company Lernia on Tuesday launched a campaign to replace the standard form of Swedish with one that’s more inclusive of migrants.
The ‘new standard Swedish’, developed in collaboration with linguist Mikael Parkvall, mixes together accents and dialects that are commonly spoken in Sweden.  According to the staffing and training company, the new dialect better reflects Sweden in 2017 and the company hopes it will replace the neutral form of Swedish in recorded messages and on answering machines.  Training Manager at Lernia, Ina Tzacheva, told Östra Småland News there’s a labour shortage in Sweden and Europe and so it’s important that people with non-standard accents don’t feel excluded from the jobs market.  Expressing concern that some people are being excluded from work because of the way they speak, she told the newspaper: “We want to focus on how a person’s accent is not reflective of their skills and expertise … We cannot exclude people just because they do not speak in the same way as we do.”  So,if you want to be hip, just sprinkle your speech with trendy lines like, "Kill all the infidels, and have a nice day."  Your Ivy League friends will be impressed.

DOING IT RIGHT – FROM AP:   DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) -- Assuming the somber duties of commander in chief, President Donald Trump made an unannounced trip Wednesday to honor the returning remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in a weekend raid in Yemen.  Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, a 36-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, was the first known U.S. combat casualty since Trump took office less than two weeks ago. More than half a dozen militant suspects were also killed in the raid on an al-Qaida compound and three other U.S. service members were wounded...Trump's trip to Delaware's Dover Air Base was shrouded in secrecy. The president and his daughter, Ivanka, departed the White House in the presidential helicopter with their destination unannounced. A small group of journalists traveled with Trump on the condition that the visit was not reported until his arrival.  Marine One landed at Dover shortly before a C-17 believed to be carrying Owens' remains touched down. The president met with Owens family during a two-hour visit to the base. The sailor's family had requested that Trump's visit and the return of Owens' remains be private.  Whether you like Trump or not, he has restored the traditional presidential respect for the armed forces, and for that we should thank him.

February 1, 2017       Permalink

TRUMP SURVIVING – AT 12:25 P.M. ET:  Despite a full onslaught from the media, and some self-inflicted wounds, President Trump seems to be surviving reasonably well with the American public.  Last night's brilliantly executed rollout of the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court will only help.  From Rasmussen Reports: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-seven percent (47%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 38% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 38% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of 0. (see trends).

Regular updates are posted Monday through Friday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update).

The president last night nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver to the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to the election, 80% of Trump supporters said the choice of the next Supreme Court justice was Very Important to their vote, a view shared by just 58% of voters who supported Democrat Hillary Clinton.

COMMENT:  True, this is down somewhat from Rasmussen's findings last week, but that was before the blundering introduction of the president's immigration order.  Something like that must never happen again.  If Trump has more nights like last night, the Gorsuch night, he should make up lost points rather quickly.

February 1, 2017         Permalink

AND NOW SESSIONS – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  After a breathtakingly bitter debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee has cleared the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general.  From The Hill:

A Senate committee voted to confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to be attorney general on Wednesday, two days after the growing controversy surrounding President Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim nations led to the firing of an acting attorney general for insubordination.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Sessions 11-9 along party lines. His nomination now goes to the floor, where he is widely expected to be confirmed given the GOP's 52-seat majority.

The committee vote comes as Senate Democrats have sought to slow progress on other Trump nominees, including Steve Mnuchin, the pick at the Treasury Department, and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Trump's pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department.

The Alabama senator's already difficult path to confirmation was made more contentious by Trump's firing of acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who deemed the president's order illegal and said she would not have Justice attorneys defend it.

Committee Democrats on Tuesday praised Yates for her actions and accused Sessions of helping Trump draft the order, a claim Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) denied.

“I’m not sure if it would be a problem even if he was involved,” he said during his opening marks. “The fact of the matter is he was not involved.”

COMMENT:  The Democrats are becoming the crazed party of lost causes.  It is perfectly clear that their kamikaze missions are being directed by the fringe left of the party, which has power far beyond their actual voting strength in the nation. 

The left was out last night picketing Chuck Schumer's apartment in Brooklyn.  Schumer, the Senate minority leader, is a favorite target.  He is not leftist enough for the nutbags.  They want him out, replaced by someone with respectable psychiatric issues, like Elizabeth Warren.  And Chuck, being passionately ambitious, is rushing to the left, acting as unhinged as he can, to show his loyalty.

I wonder what Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy would think of all this.  Frankly, I'm not sure they'd be Democrats today.

February 1, 2017        Permalink

NOW WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  Slowly, but surely, there are signs that the Republicans are taking off the gloves in dealing with the mess that calls itself the Democratic Party.  There have just been some results in the Senate.  From the New York Post:   

A Democratic boycott couldn’t prevent President Trump’s cabinet picks for Treasury and health from gaining approval by the Senate Finance Committee.

The Republican-led committee changed its rules to allow it to operate without the boycotting Democrats and approve Steve Mnuchin for the Treasury post and Tom Price as Health and Human Services secretary.

The next step will be for the pair to be confirmed by the entire Senate.

COMMENT:  Terrific.  The Dems may actually learn that staying away is not a good thing.  I'm not sure their constituents think it's good, either.

I'm reminded of the fact that the only reason the United Nations endorsed military action to counter the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950 is that the Soviet Union boycotted a critical Security Council session and thus could not use its veto.  The Uniting for Peace resolution backing military force was approved.

Hey, you can't win the game unless you're playing.  Dems, listen up.

February 1,  2017     Permalink