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JANUARY 10,  2018

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

VOTERS GIVE THUMBS UP TO ECONOMY – FROM THE HILL:   Perceptions of the U.S. economy have reached a record high among voters, according to a new poll.  Two-thirds of voters polled, 66 percent, said in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday they would characterize the economy as “excellent” or “good.” Quinnipiac noted that figure is the highest rating since it began asking the question in 2001.
Thirty-three percent, however, said they view the economy as “not so good” or “poor.”  Nearly half of respondents, 49 percent, say former President Obama is more responsible for the current economy, while 40 percent attribute the current economic state to President Trump.  Strange how Obama gets so much credit.  Trump's great contribution is that he changed the psychology of the country on economic matters, leading to the kind of confidence we see today.  Obama may deserve some of the credit, but it's minimal.

END OF THE WORLD, END OF THE WORLD – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Washington state’s Democratic Governor Jay Inslee warned there were “just 59 days” to save future generations from “an endless cycle of crop-killing droughts one year, and rivers spilling their banks the next.”  Inslee went on a lengthy Twitter rant in efforts to convince the state legislature to pass legislation to tax carbon dioxide emissions. Washington residents voted down Inslee’s last carbon tax plan by a wide margin in 2016.  The state legislature’s session ends in 59 days, on March 8. Democrats have a slim majority in both state legislative chambers.  I think we should tell Democrats that if we had to choose between higher taxes and the end of the world, we'd choose the end of the world...and watch their reactions.  Someone should tell the Dems that Doomsday predictions are growing stale.

GREAT IDEA – FROM COLEGE FIX:  One professor gave her students a white privilege quiz. Another declared classrooms as tools for “civil resistance.” A third called John McCain a “war criminal.”
San Diego State University’s College Republicans have put out a list of 15 professors they say students should avoid because the educators use their classrooms as a “soapbox” and have an “agenda” when presenting course material.  The group’s “Teachers vs. Preachers” list also includes 14 professors the student GOPers say present material fairly and do not interject personal political views into classroom discussions.
The list was created during a College Republicans meeting in October and released Jan. 5. The group had solicited nominations on social media and voted amongst themselves to determine the outcome.   Well done.  Rating teachers for bias is entirely legitimate, and may lead to some needed change.

January 10,  2018     Permalink

I'M APPLYING TODAY – AT 12:37 P.M. ET:  If you're looking for a new, challenging academic experience with potential for profit, I have just the ticket.  From PJ Media: 

People who yearn to become entrepreneurs may find guidance at the new Feminist Business School, an online program that aims to help women launch businesses founded upon the theory of “feminine entrepreneurship” and “body-loving business practices.”

Starting next week, the California-based Feminist Business School will play host to an eight-week online “Concepts and Conceptions” course, during which seasoned “midwives” will teach women about the stages of giving “birth” to a new business.

Each week of the course will focus on a different topic. Students will start with “getting grounded,” and will eventually progress into more advanced topics such as “the myth of meritocracy,” the “stages of birthing a business,” and “toppling the patriarchy.”

Understanding feminist theory before starting a business is crucial, since it will give you a “huge leg-up on established entrepreneurs” and help you “avoid the frustrations and pitfalls of outdated masculine business models,” according to the program’s website.

The $1,200 class was developed by Jennifer Armbrust, an artist who graduated from Evergreen State University with a degree in critical teeeheory. After graduating, she founded an art gallery, later becoming a performance artist in Portland, Oregon.

I have no idea what "teeeheory" is.  I tried Googling it and got near-matches dealing with fashion.  Any ideas?

After working as a performance artist, Armbrust founded Sister, a California-based project aimed at promoting “teaching and tools for the feminine economy.” Coined by Armbrust, the “feminine economy” refers to a vision of business that shuns traditional capitalism.

COMMENT:  Do they have a football team?

January 10, 2018       Permalink

THE PRESIDENT HOLDS – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:   We're now starting to see the first polling coming in, measuring changes in presidential approval since the publication of "the book."  If these numbers are accurate, President Trump hasn't been damaged at all.  From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-five percent (55%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 30% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 44% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14.

COMMENT:  While some commentators, especially at the notorious CNN, tried to make much of the book by Michael Wolff, the book almost destroyed itself with factual errors and wild-eyed judgments.

I saw Maggie Haberman of the anti-Trump New York Times on CNN yesterday, trashing the book.  When The Times does that, it says something about Mr. Wolff's credibility. 

The book provided incentive, however, for the White House to fight back more strongly than ever.  Wolff tried to argue that Mr. Trump is mentally defective, even functionally illiterate.  The White House responded by allowing a meeting between the president and members of Congress to be televised yesterday.  The president came off as an intelligent, capable leader.

True, Mr. Trump is sometimes his own worst enemy, with tweets that make him look small and petty.  I wish he'd stop using Twitter, but he won't.  However, more thorough exposure of the "real" Trump, as we saw yesterday on TV, will give citizens a far more accurate picture of the man in the Oval Office.

Oh, by the way, a new poll shows that Oprah Winfrey would defeat Donald Trump by ten points in a presidential election held today.  The problem for Oprah is that the election isn't being held today.  Polls generally show a well-known opponent defeating the incumbent president.  It's a commonplace...until the well-known opponent is formally nominated and subjected to scrutiny.  There's an old saying in politics that presidential contenders are the most popular the day before they actually declare.

A ten-point lead for Oprah at this stage is actually smaller than what I'd expect.  Michael Dukakis was way ahead of incumbent Vice President George H.W. Bush for part of the 1988 campaign, but Bush went on to win in a landslide, 426 electoral votes to 111 for Dukakis. 

January 10, 2018        Permalink

CREDIT WHERE IT BELONGS – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  You've heard that there are some "talks" going on between North Korea and South Korea.  You'd think they started by magic, or because the North Korean government is actually warm, kind, and Obama-like.  In fact, the leader of South Korea has now given credit where it's due – it was President Trump's tough policy that drove North Korea to the table.  From Fox: 

President Trump deserves “big credit” for kicking off the first talks between Pyongyang and Seoul in more than two years, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday.

North Korea agreed Tuesday to send a delegation to next month’s Winter Olympics, which are set to begin next month in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The rival nations’ talks are the first sign of a possible thaw in their relationship.

The talks were held for the first time since 2015 and Moon credited Trump for sparking them, according to Reuters.

“I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks,” Moon said at a news conference. “It could be a resulting work of the U.S.-led sanctions and pressure.”

Trump and North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un have gone tit-for-tat with threats and insults over the last year as the rogue regime bolstered its nuclear strength.

The U.S. had expressed concerns that North Korea’s willingness to talk with Seoul could drive a wedge in their relationship, but Moon downplayed that notion saying the main goal was still a denuclearized peninsula.

COMMENT:  That, of course, is the point.  The "talks" will not deal with the truly important issues – the North's nuclear and missile programs.  The North has already ruled those subjects off the table.

The "talks" will deal with lesser items.  We have no problem with people talking, as long as we're realistic about what's actually said and done.

It is President Trump's realism that has forced the North to see that there's a new attitude in Washington.  I have confidence that the president's toughness will continue.

January 10,  2018     Permalink

JANUARY 9,   2018

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

BANNON OUT OF BREITBART – FROM FOX:   Stephen Bannon has stepped down as executive chairman of the pro-Trump, populist website Breitbart News, less than a week after a dramatic falling out with President Trump.  Breitbart announced the news Tuesday afternoon on its website, saying it would work together with Bannon on “a smooth and orderly transition.”  “I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform,” Bannon said in a statement on the site.  “Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish,” Breitbart CEO Larry Solov said.  Yikes.  I guess the next step for Steve is the Witness Protection Program.

INCREDIBLE ACADEMIC BREAKTHROUGH – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   You’d expect the typical progressive to say that calling someone lazy is an ableist slur.  If you’re the department chair of higher education at the University of Denver, on the other hand, being called lazy is a badge of honor.  Prof. Ryan Evely Gildersleeve, whose background is “primarily out-of-classroom learning contexts with non-dominant youth,” argues today in the research journal Qualitative Inquiry that “lazy practices can become useful for postqualitative inquiry that seeks to disrupt normative explanations of the world.”  In fact, laziness is “a political stance”:  "As political action, laziness, then provides postqualitative inquiry with an additional tool for contributing to social justice via social research. Laziness combats the neoliberal condition in which academic research is situated and might serve as a virtue of postqualitative inquiry."  No question about it.  Absolutely no question.  I'm sold.  Just make sure to include the power steering.

OPRAH? – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  At least one conservative think tank is taking the possibility of an Oprah Winfrey presidency seriously. Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James just invited Oprah to join her for “substantive policy discussions and debates.”  Before the presidency of Donald Trump, that would probably seem more like a public relations gimmick than a legitimate offer. But in the era of celebrity politics, Oprah isn’t just an option — if she runs in 2020, she'd make a big splash, and even if she doesn't run, she has tremendous influence.  And while Oprah is clearly a liberal—she helped catapult Barack Obama to the White House in 2008—some conservatives see a real opportunity for bipartisan compromise.   What can one say?  If she runs, she'll probably choose a vice presidential candidate from a Super Bowl commercial.

January 9, 2018       Permalink

LENIN WOULD APPROVE – AT 11:09 A.M. ET:   Plans for the new Obama presidential library in battle-scarred Chicago are becoming, er, controversial.  Not exactly presidential.  From Fox: 

In their effort to break the mold, the planners of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago are taking heat for some less-than-lofty features in the sprawling complex.
Namely, a “test kitchen.”

Reports first surfaced last fall that the monument to the first black president’s legacy was taking on an activity-center vibe. There would be a museum – but also a basketball court, possibly a room for yoga classes, and a test kitchen to teach visitors “about the full production cycle of nutritious food.”

It’s a reference to former first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign for healthy eating and lifestyles. 

But Chicago Tribune columnist Ron Grossman trashed the “test kitchen” idea as not worthy of the ideals and history for which the presidential center is supposed to stand.

“Mr. President, I’ve got to tell you: The renderings for your museum are ‘little plans,’ more likely to congeal than stir blood,” he wrote.

The problem, Grossman wrote, isn’t the design but the add-ons.

“What brought me up short was a space in the adjoining Forum building labeled ‘test kitchen.’ Presumably that reflects Michelle Obama’s war on junk food. The museum’s champions similarly suggest it could host yoga classes,” he wrote. “President Obama, is that how you want to be remembered? As the healthy-eating and meditation-advocating president?”

He added, “That’s not how I want the story to come down to my grandchildren’s children.” 

COMMENT:  Once again we see the unseriousness of Barack Obama, and his contempt for the traditions of the United States.

Presidential libraries are usually serious places.  But they can be jokes, and simply the extension of some president's ego.

Looks like this joke is on Chicago.

January 9, 2018       Permalink

HOLLYWOOD, OUR CENTER OF POLITICAL THOUGHT – AT 8:51 A.M. ET:   Can there be any doubt?  Who needs Lincoln when you have Oprah?  Who needs Jefferson when you have Meryl?  Who needs a Constitution when you have the edicts handed down by the "Academy"?  Look to Hollywood for political wisdom.  It'll only take a few seconds.  From Wes Pruden at the Washington Times: 

We’ve just completed the first presidential primary of the 2020 election year, and the decision is unanimous.

This was the Hollywood primary — not to be confused with the California primary — and after the votes were counted, there wasn’t a dry eye or a deplorable in sight.

The winner was Oprah Winfrey, the onetime actress, sometime activist and full-time talk-show hostess and now a presidential nominee.

You might even call her the front-runner of the Pity Party.

Or so the Hollywood branch of the Pity Party decided, assembled as it was in Beverly Hills for the annual dinner of the Golden Globes, one of the endless occasions of the Hollywood glitterati to exchange prizes with one another. This is a rite that has yet to catch on with plumbers, morticians and other professionals, with prizes for the most effective use of say, a bathroom plunger or, the most skillful application of rouge on a dearly departed.

Miss Winfrey had a very good night, with a moving speech celebrating a hero and a heroine “of color.” She invoked pathos (and even a touch of bathos) reciting how she watched an Academy Awards telecast as a little girl, “sitting on the linoleum floor of my mother’s house in Milwaukee,” and how thrilled she was when Sidney Poitier — “the most elegant man I had ever seen, his tie was white and of course his skin was black” — was called up to the stage to accept his Oscar.

And...

But Hollywood, suffering from a long bout of feelings of irrelevancy, is back with the gaga. Seth Meyers, the emcee at the Golden Globes, credited his remarks at a dinner of the White House Correspondents Association for goading Donald Trump into the 2016 race for president (the goad was actually a speech by Barack Obama). Meryl Streep says Oprah has no choice, now that she carried the Hollywood Primary, but to run. Indeed, Mzz Streep is ready to be secretary of State in the Oprah administration, eager to negotiate with heads of state, since she once portrayed Margaret Thatcher in a movie.

Stedman Graham, Oprah’s fairly significant other, thinks she’s up for a run for the White House.

“It’s up to the people,” he says, generously. “She would absolutely do it.” Tom Hanks is widely tipped already for Oprah’s running mate, though her natural running mate is Beyonce, but only if she has been winked at, and it’s hard to imagine that she hasn’t.

COMMENT:  Politically, Hollywood is a joke.  You can be sure that most of the speeches made by the "stars" who spoke – "stars" most of us have never heard of – were written by PR men or interns at talent agencies. 

What many people don't realize about Hollywood is that it's actually a rather boring place.  Yes, there are plenty of good, hard-working people, but there is so much fluff on top that you often can't see the work.  And then there is the characteristic that links Hollywood with its sister industry, the federal government.  And that is the colossal waste of time.  When I was out there I sometimes thought that the objective of most of those I met was to do nothing.  No one in Hollywood is fired for doing nothing.  It's when you do something that you get in trouble. 

I don't believe that most voters care what Meryl Streep stands for.  Or Streisand.  Or the hopeless Michael Moore.  They care what's on their dinner table, and they care about the schools their kids attend.  And they watch movies for entertainment, not politics. 

Will Oprah be president?  I hope not...unless she first learns where North Korea is.

January 9, 2018       Permalink

TRUMP AND IRAN – AT 7:45 A.M. ET:  Have you noticed that there's a rebellion brewing in Iran?  You know, there were big demonstrations in the streets last week, until they were put down by the thugs.  You can be forgiven for not knowing because the mainstream media hasn't exactly headlined the story.  How important could it be compared with an anti-Trump book by a New York gossip reporter?

But there is still simmering tension in Iran.  And we can assess the reaction of foreign leaders to the call for democracy coming from the dissenting groups.   The great Andrew Malcolm gives Trump high grades, which, in my view, is the correct call.  From McClatchy: 

If you’ve got a minute to pause from our collective obsession with a gossipy book of dubious veracity, here’s an issue of compelling importance that reveals another side of this president and his administration: Iran and how Donald Trump addresses the deadly anti-regime demonstrations now convulsing that historic land that clearly is the linchpin of any future regional stability, or the opposite.

The last time such nationwide protests erupted there — the Green Revolution of 2009 — Barack Obama was painfully reluctant to involve the U.S., even rhetorically. His tardy and limp comments about peaceful demonstrations came only after congressional resolutions and John McCain’s Senate tongue-lashing for their absence.

Hillary Clinton later admitted, “We were too restrained in our support of the protests in June 2009, and in our condemnation of the government crackdown that followed.”

Though there’s little media attention these days, there’s no confusion this time. “Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever,” Trump has said. “The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime.”

Vice President Mike Pence gave a lengthy interview to Greta Van Susteren for Voice of America to broadcast in Farsi: “We're going to continue to send, from the very outset of this effort on the streets of Iran, an unambiguous message that the American people stand with freedom-loving people in Iran and around the world.”

In a Washington Post op-ed Pence wrote, “We stand with the proud people of Iran because it is right. And because the regime in Tehran threatens the peace and security of the world.”

Obama’s abiding reluctance to confront Iran on anything was tied to his consuming desire for the coveted nuclear pact he sought with Tehran, a leaky pact Trump has now declined to certify Iran is obeying.

Any president, especially one like Trump not known for nuance, walks a tightrope in these situations. He must make clear America’s support for a people’s democratic strivings without creating false hopes of direct U.S. intervention, as arose during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, ultimately squashed by Soviet tanks.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  Andrew Malcolm gives us a thoughtful view of a shrewd president who thinks clearly, acts strategically, and is far from nuts.

January 9,  2018    Permalink