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MARCH 2,  2017

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

COULD IT BE?  FROM AMERICAN MIRROR:   No, Hillary Clinton is not going away.  Someone is making “Hillary for Mayor” signs and plastering them around New York City, several photos posted on Twitter show.  There was one on an advertisement above the 34 Street-Herald Square subway station.  Alternet’s Alexandra Rosenmann posted several other examples.  There was another in a station, one on a train and even on a convenience store entrance:  It’s not clear who’s posting the signs to create a pro-Hillary buzz.  But a January poll found Clinton would trounce Mayor Bill de Blasio in a hypothetical matchup.  I think it's a great idea.  It's a fine retirement position for Hillary.  She'll be among her liberal pals and her Wall Street funders.  She'll get free theater tickets and will Christen garbage trucks.  And she can plan for her next presidential campaign with the knowledge that no New York City mayor in recent times has ever risen above that job. 

WHAT IT'S COME TO – FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:   A judge has granted a restraining order against a Black Lives Matter activist who took his racially charged rhetoric to the law office and home of Los Angeles Police Commission President Matt Johnson.  The intrusion of the activist, Trevor Ferguson, into the commissioner’s private life marked an escalation of a conflict that had previously been confined to public meetings.  Ferguson is part of a group that regularly disrupts the Police Commission’s weekly meetings by chanting and speaking out of turn to express outrage at Los Angeles Police Department shootings of black and Latino people.  Johnson, one of two African American police commissioners, is sometimes singled out by Ferguson and others, who call him a “houseboy” — a derogatory term for a black person who is subservient to whites — amid demands that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck resign and the entire department be disbanded.  This is what passes for political protest in the city of angels. What California needs is some good law-and-order Republicans in high office.

PERRY CONFIRMED – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   Rick Perry on Thursday became the nation’s energy secretary, placing the former Texas governor atop a department he once wanted to eliminate entirely.  Mr. Perry, a two-time presidential candidate who spent 14 years as the Lone Star State’s chief executive, was confirmed by a Senate vote of 62-37, drawing the support of 11 Democrats and all Republicans in the chamber, other than Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who was not present.  With the vote, President Trump now has his full energy and environmental team in place. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke — who will oversee energy development on federal lands — was approved earlier this week, and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was installed last month.  Mr. Perry took the oath of office on Thursday evening.   Rick Perry is a good man who was a very successful governor of Texas.  He did not make it as a presidential candidate, but I suspect he'll make a fine Cabinet officer.

March 2,  2017     Permalink

AND IN THE ADULT WORLD – AT 12:25 P.M. ET:  There are actually things happening outside American politics.  And they are consequential.  From Bloomberg: 

The threat to U.S. airports from terror groups such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State is expected to grow because of instability in parts of the Middle East and Asia, a former high-ranking intelligence official said Thursday.

The focus on fighting Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has allowed al-Qaeda and its offshoots to “rebound” in countries including Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan, said Michael Morell, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

At the same time, as Islamic State loses territory in Syria and Iraq, the tens of thousands of its fighters who poured in from other countries will leave, and some will try to infiltrate the U.S., Morell said.

“The threat is actually going to get worse over the next several years,” Morell said in an appearance at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Aviation Summit in Washington.

While the threat emanates from groups based in the Middle East and Asia, Morell said more than 80 percent of the people arrested by the FBI on terrorist-related charges in the past three years were U.S. residents, and the majority of them were citizens.

Airport operators and the Transportation Security Administration need to be aware of insiders, possibly inspired by al-Qaeda and Islamic State, he said.

Al-Qaeda and ISIS often concentrate on attacking symbols of the modern world, and airports are at the “center of that target zone,” he said. So-called lone wolf terrorists may not be as focused on the aviation system, but airports remain a prime target because they draw large numbers of people, he said.

Morell served as deputy director at the CIA from 2010 to 2013. He is a senior counselor at the advisory firm Beacon Global Strategies LLC, according to its website.

COMMENT:  The president has been saying pretty much the same thing, but gets ridiculed about it. 

March 2, 2017       Permalink

CARSON CONFIRMED – AT 11:41 A.M. ET:  You would think that a celebrated physician like Dr. Ben Carson, who grew up in the ghetto, would have been confirmed earlier and by acclimation.  But 41 Democrats voted against him.  He is an African-American who won't follow the party line, and that is a sin within the Democratic Party.  From Fox:

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was confirmed by the Senate Thursday to become housing secretary in the Trump administration.

Carson, a former Republican presidential candidate who battled Trump for the GOP nomination, was confirmed for the Cabinet position by a 58 to 41 vote.

In his role as head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, Carson will lead more than 8,300 employees and handle an annual budget of nearly $47 billion.

The vote comes more than a month after Carson earned the bipartisan backing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, even gaining the support of two of the panel’s most liberal members -- Democrats Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Warren, however, switched her position and voted against Carson on Thursday. The vote change comes after she faced pressure from liberal activists and wrote a long Facebook post defending her support of Carson.

Answering critics who questioned his qualifications to run HUD, Carson said during his January nomination hearing that he would go on a “listening tour” so he could gain feedback on how to reform the massive and complex department.

During his Senate hearing, Carson said he wanted to focus on solutions to combat the lack of available low-income housing and to forge new partnerships between government and the private sector.

COMMENT:  Carson brings a unique perspective, having grown up under the very conditions he'll try to change.  But the knives will be out because he'll be confronting the huge welfare/public assistance establishment, which is an industry itself.

Carson is a gentle man who became one of the world's great pediatric surgeons.  He can make a substantial contribution if he's allowed to.

March 2, 2017      Permalink

THE SAME OLD CYCLE – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  The Democrats had one objective after Tuesday's brilliant performance by President Trump, and that was to shift attention from his speech.

The first attempt went badly – trying claim that Trump exploited the widow of Navy Seal William Owens.  That certainly backfired, and made the Dems look like the small timers they really are. 

Now we're on to something new – a story that broke, by some remarkable coincidence, the day after the president's excellent speech.  It deals with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and whether he had contact with Russian officials during the election campaign.  From The New York Times: 

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans began breaking ranks on Thursday to join Democrats in demanding that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recuse himself from overseeing an investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Those calls came after the disclosure that Mr. Sessions himself spoke with the Russian ambassador last year, in seeming contradiction to his testimony at his confirmation hearing.

The partisan furor that broke out with the Justice Department’s acknowledgment of the contacts late Wednesday began to take on a bipartisan sheen as the controversy spilled over into Thursday morning.

The House majority Leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Mr. Sessions “needs to clarify” his testimony and that he also thought Mr. Sessions should recuse himself from Russia-linked investigations.

“I think – the trust of the American people — you recuse yourself from these situations,” Mr. McCarthy said, adding that, “for any investigation going forward, you want to make sure everybody trusts the investigation.”

COMMENT:  It looks like a molehill to me.  Someone will have to prove that 1) the Russians actually tried to interfere with our election to help Trump and 2) that the Trump campaign colluded in it.  Thus far I think the case is weak, but the Democrats are trying to drag out the issue because they have little else.

On the other hand, this follows a disturbing pattern – a Trump triumph one day, followed by an embarrassment the next.  Trump's campaign, after all, had a crudeness about it, and that continued through the early days of his administration.  But I do think Trump, whom I opposed for the nomination, is evolving, and could turn out to be an effective, consequential president, if he can overcome the obstacles being placed before him by a hostile press, an irresponsible opposition, and Trump doubters within the Republican Party.

March 2,  2017     Permalink

MARCH 1,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

DONALD BEATS OSCAR – FROM ADWEEK:   More than 43 million watched Pres. Donald Trump‘s first address to Congress last night on the broadcast and cable news networks, according to Nielsen.  Fox News was the most-watched on all of TV for the speech, drawing 10.765 million. NBC was second (first among the broadcasters) drawing 9.144 million. Among the younger news demo (A25-54) NBC was first, followed by Fox News. NBC had The Voice as its lead-in. As these are Nielsen numbers, this only includes TV viewing and not viewers who watched on streaming services.  Trump beat the Oscars, which only drew 32.9 million viewers.

MAJOR EQUALITY NEWS – FROM THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE:   The University of Minnesota is shedding its "king" and "queen" titles for homecoming, organizers said Monday. Instead "royalty" will be the term of choice.  The Student Unions and Activities office said in its announcement that the change come this fall is "an effort toward gender inclusivity."  "We wish to promote a spirit of inclusion at the University of Minnesota," the announcement continued. "This change allows the University to select the best student representatives for the U based on campus and community involvement — regardless of gender."  Organizers said they "can be any combination of any gender identity."  The move away from gender-specific labels has been going on for several years on campuses around the country.  Anyone hear of any conservative inclusivity?  How about some campus royalty wearing Reagan T-shirts?  I don't hear much interest from the Anthropology Department.

HOUSEGUEST – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:   Barack Obama is turning his new home in the posh Kalorama section of the nation's capital - just two miles away from the White House - into the nerve center of the mounting insurgency against his successor, President Donald J. Trump.  Obama's goal, according to a close family friend, is to oust Trump from the presidency either by forcing his resignation or through his impeachment.  And Obama is being aided in his political crusade by his longtime consigliere, Valerie Jarrett, who has moved into the 8,200-square-foot, $5.3-million Kaloroma mansion with the former president and Michelle Obama, long time best friends.  Jarrett played a vital - if at times low-key - role in the Obama presidency. She lived in the White House, dined with the Obamas, and helped shape his domestic and foreign policies.  The gossip will now begin.

March 1, 2017       Permalink

TAKING CARE OF BARACK – AT 11:43 A.M. ET:   Going the way of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama plans to market the presidency in a grand manner.  From The New York Times:

Penguin Random House will publish coming books by former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama, the publishing company announced Tuesday night, concluding a heated auction among multiple publishers.

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but publishing industry executives with knowledge of the bidding process said it probably stretched well into eight figures. Robert B. Barnett and Deneen C. Howell of Williams & Connolly represented the Obamas.

Eight figures?  Eight figures?  Well, Hillary made eight figures.  Why not Barack and Michelle, those servants of the people?

Penguin Random House acquired world rights to the books, and worldwide sales could be substantial. No decision has been made yet as to which of the company’s major imprints — which include Random House, Doubleday, Alfred A. Knopf and Crown — will publish the books. Mr. Obama’s previous books were published by Crown, which also published Mrs. Obama’s book “American Grown,” about the White House garden.

A spokeswoman for Penguin Random House would not say whether the books would be memoirs and referred questions to representatives of the Obamas.

COMMENT:  Have you noticed that Democrats make more money?  No wonder they lost contact with their former working-class base?  Aren't they the help?  The flyover people?  The poor saps who cling to their guns and their religion? 

The Dems claim they are anti-corporation...unless of course it's their corporation.

What a seedy mess.

March 1, 2017       Permalink

GOOD START – AT 10:50 A.M. ET:  The Trump administration is starting to dismantle some of the lesser aspects (many, many) of the Obama administration.  Get this one.  From Fox: 

The Obama administration funneled billions of dollars to activist organizations through a Department of Justice slush fund scheme, according to congressional investigators.

“It’s clear partisan politics played a role in the illicit actions that were made,” Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, told Fox News. “The DOJ is the last place this should have occurred.”

Findings spearheaded by the House Judiciary Committee point to a process shrouded in secrecy whereby monies were distributed to a labyrinth of nonprofit organizations involved with grass-roots activism.

“Advocates for big government and progressive power are using the Justice Department to extort money from corporations,” Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton told Fox News. “It’s a shakedown. It’s corrupt, pure and simple.”

There is a recent effort by Republicans to eliminate the practice, which many believe was widely abused during the Obama administration.

When big banks are sued by the government for discrimination or mortgage abuse, they can settle the cases by donating to third-party non-victims. The settlements do not specify how these third-party groups could use the windfall.

So far, investigators have accounted for $3 billion paid to “non-victim entities.”

Critics say banks are incentivized to donate the funds to non-profits rather than giving it to consumers.

COMMENT:  Incredible.  That is a major scandal.  I'm sure The New York Times is on the case.  Yeah, right.

March 1, 2017        Permalink

ME, ME, ME – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  The president's speech continues to get overwhelmingly positive reviews, even from grudging liberal commentators.  Dems rushed out of the House chamber after the speech, apparently realizing it wasn't their best night.

An interesting comparison of two presidents comes from the Washington Examiner: 

In his first presidential speech to a joint session of Congress in 2009, Barack Obama referenced himself roughly 84 times (that number is approximate). By contrast, President Trump made only 53 such references in his address to the joint session on Tuesday night.

In 2010, Obama actually referenced himself approximately 117 times per Vocativ's count.

Trump, who's often accused of being self-absorbed, used his remarks to the joint session of Congress convened Tuesday to focus significant time on promoting national unity.

Vanity Fair published an article in November 2015 entitled, "Is Donald Trump Actually a Narcissist? Therapists weight in!"

Yet in his remarks Tuesday night, President Trump used the word "we" more than 100 times.

COMMENT:  Good move by Trump.  I'm sure his speech editors went through the text carefully to be sure there were not too many references to "I."  All presidents have substantial egos, but Obama abused the privilege.  Trump got it just right last night.

March 1,  2017     Permalink