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JUNE 28,  2017

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

SHOCKING, PAINFUL, UNACCEPTABLE – FROM HEATSTREET:  It used to be that high-profile Hollywood World War II movies got called out for taking liberties with the facts.  These days, they’re getting in trouble for being too historically accurate.  Take The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan’s new movie Dunkirk, which recreates the defense and evacuation of British and Allied forces from Northern France in May-June 1940 during the early stages of the World War II.  The blockbuster stars Jack Lowden, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy and, er, Harry Styles. It is set to be released July 21.  Plenty of people have taken to social media to express why they won’t be seeing it, and it’s all to do with the movie being “too white.” (Not sure if they’re aware, but the vast majority of British and Allied forces were white.)  I'm not shocked by the reaction.  Diversity has become an end in itself, and a new religion.  But please observe that diversity always means only those groups championed by the political left.  And it never includes ideological diversity.

I'M SURE IT WAS JUST AN INNOCENT MISTAKE – FROM CBS LOCAL:   HARRISONBURG, Va. — A man paid to register Virginia voters prior to the 2016 Presidential Election will spend at least 100 days in prison for submitting the names of deceased individuals to the Registrar’s Office.  James Madison University student Andrew J. Spieles, 21, of Harrisonburg, pled guilty Monday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. As part of the plea agreement, Spieles agreed to a prison sentence of 100 to 120 days.  Spieles worked for Harrisonburg Votes when he committed the crime, according to acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle.  Harrisonburg Votes is a political organization affiliated with the Democratic Party.  “In July 2016 Spieles’ job was to register as many voters as possible and reported to Democratic Campaign headquarters in Harrisonburg,” a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson said.  I'm deeply disturbed that one of our great political parties would be involved in voter corruption.  There must be a mistake here.  I see the hand of TRUMP!  Or FOX! 

GREAT IDEA - FROM BREITBART:   Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on Tuesday that CNN should consider bringing in an independent counsel to investigate the company as a whole amid a fake news scandal in which they retracted a hit piece pertaining to President Donald Trump.  “They should appoint an outside analyst, somebody of impeccable authority like Michael Mukasey, who used to be Attorney General of the United States, to view everything of CNN and basically reset it,” he told Fox and Friends in an interview. Gingrich continued:  "You cannot get to a believable network while Zucker is there. He clearly made a gamble last year to be the leading anti-Trump network, he’s clearly done things that are absurdly wrong. I like lots of the people at CNN, I worked with them for a while. There are some very very good people at CNN, they have a very long tradition of being good journalists. But the culture of the overall system right now is very toxic. "  Rolling Stone magazine brought in the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia to investigate the role of the magazine in a false-rape-report scandal at the University of Virginia.  An outside investigator would be appropriate for CNN, which is now in serious trouble.

June 28, 2017       Permalink

HYPOCRITE – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:  Bernie Sanders, symbol of high political morality (choke), is now outraged that his wife is being investigated, even though the investigation appears entirely legitimate.  From The Hill: 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday broke his silence on an FBI inquiry into his wife Jane Sanders, calling the probe a "pathetic" and politically motivated attack.

"My wife is about the most honest person I know," Sanders said on CNN's "OutFront" Tuesday. "All that I will tell you now is it's a sad state of affairs in America when not only we have politicians being destroyed ... but when you go after people's wives. That's pretty pathetic."

Sanders also suggested in the video that the inquiry was politically motivated, but wouldn't comment further.

"That's all I'm going to say. I think it's fairly pathetic that when people are involved in public life not only do they get attacked, but their wives and their families get attacked," Sanders added.

The FBI is reportedly looking into whether Jane Sanders falsified loan documents while she served as the president of Burlington College. The small Vermont liberal arts school closed down in May 2016 after going bankrupt and failing to meet accreditation standards. 

A family spokesperson confirmed to the AP on Monday that Sanders has hired a lawyer to protect her interests.

COMMENT:  What a farce.  The inquiry was started under the Obama administration.  It appears based on serious concerns about Jane Sanders's alleged actions while president of Burlington.  The senator has no case that the investigation is political.  Stop whining, Bernie.  You don't walk on water.

June 28, 2017       Permalink

INCREDIBLE – AT 9:57 A.M. ET:  Obamacare is truly collapsing.  But do the Republicans have a practical alternative?  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

Minuteman Health of Massachusetts and New Hampshire announced it is withdrawing from the Affordable Care Act exchanges in 2018, leaving only four co-ops in operation. The co-op will stop writing business on January 1 and organize a new company, Minuteman Insurance Company, instead.

The company cited issues with Obamacare's risk-adjustment program, which is the program that shifts money away from those with healthier customers to those with sicker enrollees. Minuteman Health said that the negative impact of this program had been "substantial."

"Unfortunately, the program has not worked as intended," the company said. "It has been difficult for insurers to predict their risk-adjustment obligations, which has led some to withdraw from the ACA market."

"The program also unfairly penalizes issuers like MHI that are small, low cost, and experience high growth," the company said. "The significant relative impact from risk adjustment has been the principal driver of a reduction in MHI's surplus and capital over time."

The co-op was able to grow to 37,000 members since it began in 2014 but said that being subject to certain co-op rules made it hard to adjust its business model to mitigate issues with the risk-adjustment program. The co-op was awarded $156.4 million in taxpayer-funded loans in 2012 and 2013.

The new company, Minuteman Insurance Company, will not be subject to these rules.

COMMENT:  Moral of the story:  In many cases companies can sort out their problems and provide services people actually want...but only if the government doesn't intervene.

June 28, 2017       Permalink

THE PRESS UNDER ATTACK – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  I don't think it's my imagination.  The good guys are starting to win their fight to expose corruption in media.  CNN has been humiliated twice in the last week alone – once when three employees had to resign after their story was proved false, and again when a CNN producer was caught on secretly recorded tape admitting that the Trump/collusion with Russia story had no real evidence behind it. 

Michael Goodwin, of the New York Post, puts the episodes in context:

In the sixth month of Donald Trump’s presidency, we are witnessing an unprecedented meltdown of much of the media. Standards have been tossed overboard in a frenzy to bring down the president.

Trump, like all presidents, deserves coverage that is skeptical and tough, but also fair. That’s not what he’s getting.

What started as bias against him has become a cancer that is consuming the best and brightest. In rough biblical justice, media attempts to destroy the president are boomeranging and leaving their reputations in tatters.

He accuses them of publishing fake news, and they respond with such blind hatred that they end up publishing fake news. That’ll show him.

CNN is suffering an especially bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, even trying to make a virtue of its hostility to the president. In doing so, executives conveniently confuse animus with professional skepticism, and cite growing audiences as proof of their good judgment.

The bottom line matters, and there is certainly an audience for hating Trump all the time. But facts and fairness separate major news organizations from any other business looking to make a buck, and a commitment to them creates credibility and public trust.

That’s how CNN sold itself for years — boring but trustworthy. Now it’s boring and untrustworthy.

COMMENT:  Read the rest of Goodwin's column.  It is packed with good information, which is the basis of real journalism.

June 28,  2017     Permalink

JUNE 27,  2017

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

AN UNAPPROVED PROCEDURE – FROM SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST:   China Southern Airlines Flight 380 was held up at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport after an elderly woman passenger caused a disruption, according to the airlines official WeChat account. An investigation into the incident is under way.  Passengers boarding the flight reportedly saw an elderly woman throwing coins at the engine for “blessings” from the middle of the boarding staircase and alerted the crew.  Coins in engines are frowned upon by engine manufacturers, unless of course they represent a cultural tradition that trendies are required to respect.

GO SARAH – FROM FOX:   Former Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin filed a lawsuit against the New York Times Tuesday over an editorial that tied her to the January 2011 shooting of an Arizona congresswoman.  Palin's attorneys claim that the paper defamed her in the June 14 editorial, published hours after House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot and wounded while practicing with the GOP's baseball team in Alexandria, Va.  The editorial, attributed to the Times's editorial board and titled "America's Lethal Politics," initially linked Palin's rhetoric to the shooting that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  The paper posted a correction the next day admitting that "no such link was established."  It will be a tough case for Sarah to win, as the law tilts against public figures who sue newspapers.  But I'm glad she's trying.  One benefit of the suit might be to expose the poor quality and reliability of leftist journalism.

GLAD SOMEONE NOTICED – FROM FOX:   The Democratic base is growing increasingly frustrated with former President Barack Obama’s actions after leaving office, including a seemingly endless tour of millionaire and billionaire luxury retreats, according to Democrats and activists contacted by Fox News.  Ex-presidents, understandably and un-controversially, go on vacations immediately after leaving office. But the level of luxury the Obamas enjoy on their vacations is unprecedented for a modern-day president, say travel experts.  Since leaving office in late January, Obama has visited late actor Marlon Brando’s private island; the Four Seasons in Bali -- where rooms cost upward of $2,000 per night; a Palm Springs estate; Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island; the exclusive Mid Pacific Country Club in Oahu; the 13th-century Borgo Finocchieto in Tuscany; and the Rising Sun, Hollywood studio mogul David Geffen’s private yacht.  But I don't recall him visiting Bill or Hillary's place, about 20 minutes from where this is being written.  I guess we just haven't made it.

June 27, 2017       Permalink

MIDEAST WARNING – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  We will soon have to make critical decisions on Syria.  Life and death decisions.  From Reuters:   

The White House said on Monday it appears the Syrian government is preparing for another chemical weapons attack and it warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad he and his military would "pay a heavy price" if it conducts such an attack.

The White House statement said preparations by Syria were similar to those undertaken before an April 4 chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians and prompted President Donald Trump to order a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base.

Trump ordered the strike on the Shayrat airfield in Syria in April in reaction to what Washington said was a poison gas attack by Assad's government that killed at least 70 people in rebel-held territory. Syria denied it carried out the attack.

The strike was the toughest direct US action yet in Syria's six-year-old civil war, raising the risk of confrontation with Russia and Iran, Assad's two main military backers.

US officials at the time called the intervention a "one-off" intended to deter future chemical weapons attacks and not an expansion of the US role in the Syrian war.

COMMENT:  Much of this mess can be attributed to the weakness of Barack Obama.  Flash weakness and you get, not peace, but more war.

Now we are on the brink of further American military action in Syria.  Thanks, Barack.  Enjoy your $65-million book contract.  I'm sure you'll have much to say, and excuse.

June 27, 2017       Permalink

STATE OF THE MEDIA – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:44 A.M. ET:   It's in a terrible state, period.  The condition, which is almost medical, is well described by Jeffrey McCall at The Hill:

Constitutional framer James Madison helped create the free press in America. He once sang its praises, writing, “To the press alone, checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.” The press in that era certainly meant something different from what is seen in America’s news industry today, but it’s a safe bet Madison would be appalled by contemporary press performance.

The free press was established to serve as surrogate for the citizenry and to watchdog the government on behalf of the American people. Today, the nation has little confidence in the Fourth Estate to effectively serve its constitutional role. National polls indicate less than a third of respondents trust the media. The decline has been steep and steady for almost two decades.

Approximately 80 percent of Americans believe coverage of the 2016 election was biased. That figure necessarily includes many Clinton supporters. A recent Quinnipiac University poll shows broad disapproval of news media performance, with 33 percent reporting dissatisfaction and another 26 percent saying they are angry about how the media does its job.
 
Social observer and media analyst Camille Paglia reflected the nation’s sentiments recently in a radio interview in which she bluntly said, “There is no journalism left.” She went on to say “the news media have turned themselves over to the most childish fraternity, kind of buffoonish behavior,” adding “it is going to take decades to recover from this atrocity.”

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  We'll be seeing more and more articles like this, as journalism gets "woke" to its problems and its disgrace. 

We should be thankful for the internet.  Like the horseman riding out of the sunrise, it arrived just in time to counter the collapse of mainstream journalism.

June 27,  2017     Permalink

TROUBLE AT CNN – AT 9:29 A.M. ET:  More tales out of CNN, indicating that it's dawning on some "journalists" that things are not well.  From James O'Keefe at Project Veritas: 

(NEW YORK) -- Project Veritas has released a video of CNN Producer John Bonifield who was caught on hidden-camera admitting that there is no proof to CNN's Russia narrative.

"I mean, it's mostly B.S. right now," Bonifield says. "Like, we don't have any giant proof."

He confirms that the driving factor at CNN is ratings:

"It's a business, people are like the media has an ethical phssssss... All the nice cutesy little ethics that used to get talked about in journalism school you're just like, that's adorable. That's adorable. This is a business."

According to the CNN Producer, business is booming. "Trump is good for business right now," he concluded.

Bonifield further goes on to explain that the instructions come straight from the top, citing the CEO, Jeff Zucker:

"Just to give you some context, President Trump pulled out of the climate accords and for a day and a half we covered the climate accords. And the CEO of CNN (Jeff Zucker) said in our internal meeting, he said good job everybody covering the climate accords, but we're done with that, let's get back to Russia."

Bonifield also acknowledged: "I haven't seen any good enough evidence to show that the President committed a crime." He continues:

"I just feel like they don't really have it but they want to keep digging. And so I think the President is probably right to say, like, look you are witch hunting me. You have no smoking gun, you have no real proof."

"To report not on facts, but instead on narratives that yield high ratings, is exactly the definition of fake news," said James O'Keefe. "We said we are going after the media, and there is a lot more to come."

COMMENT:   I wonder if brother Bonifield still has his job.  If he does, I hope he watches out for cars coming down dark alleys. 

Who at CNN would want to work with him?

I can't wait for O'Keefe's next report.  As someone who started in print journalism, I want to see the whole business blown open.  Then maybe we'll see the grown-ups come forward to fix the problems.  Maybe.

June 27,  2017     Permalink