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JULY 26,  2018

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

MAXINE THE DIVINE – FROM FOX:   Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has been one of President Trump's most outspoken critics, recently going so far as to encourage people to publicly harass members of the Trump administration.  On Sunday, however, Waters suggested in a church sermon in Los Angeles that she's on a divine mission to stop the president, blasting the Trump administration on a range of issues.
Addressing the congregation at First AME Church, Waters said, “You’ve gotta know that I’m here to do the work that I was sent to do, and as pastor said to me when I came in this morning, ‘When God sends you to do something, you just do it!'” she exclaimed to cheers from the crowd.   “So, I have a message. I’m going back to Washington tomorrow morning. I’m going to tell them pastor told me to come here and just do it!” she concluded.  Along the way she might check in at any certified mental clinic.

OUTRAGEOUS – FROM FOX:  A Connecticut city official is under fire for taking a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance to protest President Trump.  Haddam Selectman Melissa Schlag, a Democrat, took a knee as the pledge was recited during a July 16 Board of Selectman meeting.  In a letter posted on Facebook, Schlag listed a number of reasons for why she knelt, including Trump's comments on Russia's election meddling during his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the migrant family separation crisis.  Many Haddam residents took issue with Schlag's demonstration, and veterans are expected to attend the next meeting to express their displeasure, Fox 61 reported.  In the immortal words of the great philosopher Jerry Lewis, bad looks you can change, stupid is forever.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CITIZENSHIP – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   Forget the Russian government — foreign nationals are increasingly gaining the ability to influence American elections more directly. They’re being granted the right to vote.  From Boston, where the city council is debating the move, to San Francisco, where noncitizens gained the right earlier this month in school-board elections, jurisdictions are looking to expand the boundaries of the electorate beyond its citizens.  Several Republicans fired back this week.  Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina announced a bill that would strip federal funding from states or localities that allow noncitizens to vote in their elections.  “Allowing noncitizens to water down the voice of American citizens at the voting booth disrespects their sacrifice and the value of American citizenship,” Mr. Duncan said in announcing the legislation. “Now more than ever, it is critical that we ensure only American citizens are casting ballots in this country.”  The radical, leftist Democrats are behind this, and they must be resisted.   American citizenship is a prize, and a trust.  It's not something to be tossed away.

July 26, 2018       Permalink

OH LOOK, ANOTHER VICTORY FOR SOCIALISM – AT 1:30 P.M. ET:   We will be sure that our little Evita from the Bronx, new star of the Democratic Party, knows all about this.  Whether she understands it is another story.  From MarketWatch via the New York Post: 

Inflation in Venezuela could top 1 million percent by the end of 2018 as its five-year-long economic crisis deepens, the region’s observer at the International Monetary Fund said.

Years of hyperinflation and destitute conditions in the oil-concentrated nation compare to Germany after World War I and Zimbabwe at the beginning of the last decade, said Alejandro Werner, head of the Western Hemisphere for the IMF, in a blog post.

“We expect the [Venezuelan] government to continue to run wide fiscal deficits financed entirely by an expansion in base money, which will continue to fuel an acceleration of inflation as money demand continues to collapse,” Werner wrote.

What’s more, the crisis will lead to intensifying spillover effects for neighboring countries in part as panicked Venezuelans, suffering from food shortages and lacking in health care, electricity, water, transportation and security, cross into Colombia and Brazil and strain their resources, Werner predicted.

COMMENT:  Socialism is one of those things that looks good at the time.  Then you live under it, and it seems good for the first few years.  Then, thinking you're free, you try to do something, or accomplish something, that's outside the party line.  And then, as Margaret Thatcher said, you run out of other people's money.

Doesn't look so good any longer.

July 26, 2018       Permalink

TRUMP THE NEGOTIATOR – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  The president has scored a major victory on trade in his negotiations with the European.  From Investors Business Daily:

Trade War: EU officials and Donald Trump decided Wednesday to call off their costly trade war and instead do what Trump does best: Cut a deal on trade and go home. Don't ever underestimate Trump's negotiating chops.

Facing the possibility of the U.S. slapping 25% tariffs on EU-built cars, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his top trade official Cecilia Malmstrom "agreed to work with the U.S. administration to lower industrial tariffs on both sides, increase LNG exports and soy beans to Europe, and align regulatory standards to allow for medical devices to have better market access in Europe," an EU official said.

Late Wednesday, details of an agreement on autos were still being worked out.

Even so, the deal for now ends the possibility of a debilitating U.S.-EU trade war, which would affect some $718 billion in total trade — our largest trade relationship, even bigger than China — and would have had devastating impacts on a number of industries on both sides of the Atlantic.
But Trump emphasized again his concern over what he sees as the lopsided trade relationship between the U.S. and EU.

"Over the years, the United States has lost hundreds of billions of dollars to the European Union and we just want it to be a level playing field for our farmers, our manufacturers, for everybody," Trump told Juncker Wednesday.

COMMENT:  Already the Dems are out disparaging the deal, but what will they say when the results start to show?

We have a midterm in four months.  Historical tradition dictates that the Democrats should be cleaning up, counting their gains in dozens of House seats.  And, yes, it may happen.  But the polls are showing a tight race, and that fact alone should give the president some encouragement.

If Mr. Trump can build a series of victories, he could be in a position to neutralize history, and then march strongly to 2020.  Big "if."  But Trump is, as the story asserted, not to be underestimated.

July 26, 2018       Permalink

WHERE THE PRESIDENT STANDS – AT 11:32 A.M. ET:  Mr. Trump seems to be stuck in a polling rut.  About 46% in Rasmussen for the last week or so.  We'll see if that changes by Monday, following the good economic news of this week, but right now the president, having engaged in some serious verbal blunders, is facing a few headwinds.   From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-three percent (53%) disapprove. 

The latest figures include 32% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 44% who Strongly Disapprove.

COMMENT:  The anti-Trump faction appears rock solid, at least at this point.  Here is a president who may be the most creative and effective we've had since Reagan, but, unlike Reagan, is self-destructive.  We can have an unlikely triumph in the making, if Trump can discipline himself, but we can see a tragedy instead.

July 26,  2018     Permalink

JULY 25,  2018

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

GREAT – FROM THE ALGEMEINER:  A newly-formed group of young dissidents inside Iran has sent a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warning that any negotiations with the Islamic Republic’s leaders cannot be carried out in good faith.  “Mr Pompeo: Please take into consideration that any negotiations with the barbaric regime in Iran not only will delay the process of peace in the region, but also will give time to the murderous [Tehran] regime to create new terrorist cell groups for the complete destruction of the Middle East and North African regions,” the letter — dated July 21 and first published by Kayhan, an Iranian opposition newspaper based in London — stated.  “All we are asking your respectful government to do, is to continue to stand with us and support the voiceless people in Iran and to help us achieve our goals in reaching peace, prosperity, secularism, and most importantly, a free democratic Iran,” the letter asserted.  I hope Pompeo responds positively, and demonstrates a contrast with Obama, who showed no interest at all. 

THE DEMOCRATS ARE INCREASINGLY NUTS – FROM RASMUSSEN:  Democrats strongly defend those who think President Trump is a traitor. Other voters say they’re just playing politics with the claim.  The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 65% of Likely Democratic Voters believe critics of Trump’s recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin truly believe he is a treasonous Russian puppet. Just as many Republicans (67%) disagree and think those critics are only making the charges for political purposes, a view shared by a plurality (47%) of voters not affiliated with either major party.  The Dems have become the new McCarthyites, and they're damned proud of it.

THE RIGHT WAY – FROM FOX:  Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Wednesday said the team’s players will be required to stand on the sidelines for the national anthem this season, days after the NFL said it would freeze a new policy on the polarizing issue amid ongoing negotiations with the players union.  “Our policy is you stand during the anthem, toe on the line,” Jones said Wednesday during a team press   conference.  Starting before the 2016 season, dozens of NFL players have knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality. The debate over the policy intensified last season after President Donald Trump said players were disrespecting the American flag and called on league owners to fire anyone who did not stand for the anthem.   The team should set the policy.  The players are on team time and on team property.  They should respect the team's decision on the anthem. 

July 25, 2018       Permalink

AND THIS AIN'T BAD EITHER – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:   Economy, economy, economy.  The lights are green.  The optimism is high.  From Fox: 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is having a bad week – and it’s about to get worse.

On Friday we’re expected to learn from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis that the U.S. economy grew at a blistering pace in the second quarter of this year, further affirming the success of President Trump’s tax cuts and deregulatory efforts.

President Trump hinted at the good economic news in a tweet Tuesday, writing: “Our Country is doing GREAT. Best financial numbers on the Planet. Great to have USA WINNING AGAIN!”

Economists expect the Bureau of Economic Analysis report Friday will show that the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew between 3.3 percent and 4.6 percent in the second quarter – showing not only a strong economy, but one that is accelerating.

Schumer hopes each day to distract from the booming economy by championing a bewildering array of issues – the latest being the news that “ghost gun” plans will appear on the Internet starting Aug. 1 and enable people to make guns with 3D printers.

COMMENT:  If the economy sustains through election day, the GOP can deliver the message that a Democratic victory can endanger all the progress that's been made, we may come out of these midterms in reasonable shape.  The economy is the president's strongest weapon, as it affects every family. 

There is a report that Republican members of the House are seriously preparing a new tax-reform package.  Good.  As long as the reform benefits the great mass of Americans, it can only help defeat the socialist surge coming from the other side.

July 25, 2018       Permalink 

SOME NICE NEWS – AT 9:22 A.M. ET:  With all the grimness, we look for positive things to report, as a little smile goes a long way.  Consider this, from Fox:

A Republican challenger has pulled even with blue state Oregon's Democratic incumbent governor, according to a new poll.

The news comes as a surprise in a state that hasn’t seen a Republican governor since late 1980s, sparking fears of the end of Democratic Party’s total domination of the state.

The poll indicates that Republican state Rep. Knute Buehler is waging a serious challenge to Gov. Kate Brown, a vocal critic of President Trump, with both candidates getting support from 45 percent of likely voters, the Oregonian reported.

Oregon is considered a solid blue state, with Democrats controlling both the state House and Senate, while Brown has been the governor since 2015.

The poll, conducted by Florida-based Gravis Marketing, invigorated the race overnight, though Democrats began questioning its validity.

“It's hard to understand how this is a reputable piece of public opinion research,” Brown’s campaign spokesman, Christian Gaston, told the Oregonian.

But other pollsters in the state aren’t dismissing the poll showing the two candidates deadlocked in the race, saying Brown doesn’t have strong voter support.

COMMENT:  We always caution about putting too much faith in one poll, but this is a breath of fresh, or at least filtered air.  Oregon has gone fashionably left, and maybe the people of the state, looking south at the mess of San Francisco, have had it.  We hope so.

July 25,  2018     Permalink