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MARCH 6,  2017

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

GOOD NEWS – FROM FOX:   Exxon Mobil (XOM) will spend $20 billion by 2022 to expand its footprint along the U.S. Gulf Coast, creating more than 45,000 jobs.  The world’s largest publicly traded oil company said Monday it will invest in refining and chemical-manufacturing projects at 11 proposed and existing sites, located in Texas and Louisiana. Speaking at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Exxon's new CEO Darren Woods noted that 35,000 temporary construction jobs will be needed. The investments will also create 12,000 permanent jobs.  Many of the new positions will be for high-skilled, high-paying jobs with an average salary of about $100,000 a year, Woods said in Exxon’s announcement.   It was immediately claimed, of course, that this was all planned during the Obama administration, but I've heard that story zillions of times.  Jimmy Carter claimed that Ronald Reagan's defense buildup actually started under the Carter administration.  A failed mayor of New York, defeated for re-election by Rudy Giuliani, claimed that he actually started Giuliani's successful crime-fighting program.  Recall the old saying, roughly translated as "Victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan."

I'M A BIT CONFUSED – FROM THE GUARDIAN:   For thousands of years, parts of northwest Europe have enjoyed a climate about 5C warmer than many other regions on the same latitude. But new scientific analysis suggests that that could change much sooner and much faster than thought possible.  Climatologists who have looked again at the possibility of major climate change in and around the Atlantic Ocean, a persistent puzzle to researchers, now say there is an almost 50% chance that a key area of the North Atlantic could cool suddenly and rapidly, within the space of a decade, before the end of this century.  That is a much starker prospect than even the worst-case scientific scenario proposed so far, which does not see the Atlantic ocean current shutdown happening for several hundred years at least.  A scenario even more drastic (but fortunately fictional) was the subject of the 2004 US movie The Day After Tomorrow, which portrayed the disruption of the North Atlantic’s circulation leading to global cooling and a new Ice Age.  Wait a sec.  Didn't I hear something about "global warming"?  I thought I did.  Please inform me.

ESPN SINKING – FROM THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:  Faced with the combined pressure of declining advertising revenue and a steady loss of subscribers, ESPN will undergo another round of “significant” layoffs over the next four months.    Sources confirm a report by Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch that ESPN will target its on-air talent in this latest round of cuts, which will spare behind-the-scenes staff but include many hosts and reporters whom fans know and recognize.  ESPN is still working on the exact details of the cuts, which aim to remove tens of millions of dollars of salary from the network’s payroll. In addition to the layoffs, ESPN reportedly will buy out the contracts of some well-known hosts, something the network has largely avoided in previous cuts.  Why doesn't someone say what everyone knows?  A major reason for ESPN's loss of "subscribers" is that it's become a highly politicized left-wing operation that has turned off large numbers of viewers.  Get back to basics and you might survive, guys.

March 6,  2017     Permalink 

NORTH KOREA DEFIANT AGAIN – AT 11:48 A.M. ET:   President Obama left President Trump an advisory that North Korea would be Trump's greatest foreign problem.  That may turn out to be true.  Nothing thus far has worked to stem North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.  From Fox:

North Korea fired four banned ballistic missiles that flew 620 miles into the ocean off its eastern coast, South Korean officials said Monday, in an apparent reaction to huge military drills by Washington and Seoul that Pyongyang insists are an invasion rehearsal.

It was not immediately clear the exact type of missile fired; Pyongyang has staged a series of missile test-launches of various ranges in recent months, including a new intermediate-range missile in February. The ramped-up tests come as leader Kim Jong Un pushes for a nuclear and missile program that can deter what he calls U.S. and South Korean hostility toward the North.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday's firing shows that North Korea has become "a new kind of threat." Japanese officials said three of the four missiles landed in the 200-nautical-mile offshore area where Tokyo has sovereign rights for exploring and exploiting resources.

South Korea's Joint Chief of Staff said in a statement that Monday's launches were made from the Tongchang-ri area in North Pyongan province. The area is the home of the North's Seohae Satellite Station where it has conducted prohibited long-range rocket launches in recent years.

Seoul and Washington call their military drills on the Korean Peninsula, which remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty, defensive and routine.

COMMENT:  They key point here is that North Korea, a true hard-line Communist nation, is forging ahead with the development of, and the exporting of, very dangerous weapons.  And it is already a nuclear power that threatens our allies South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and even threatens, with its missiles, the western part of the United States. 

March 6, 2017        Permalink

NOT QUITE WHAT WE'VE BEEN TOLD – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:   For months we've been sent the message that President Trump is literally in bed with Vladimir Putin, that there's something going on, that Putin has something on Trump, that Moscow was about to become capital of Trump's America, that American kids would be served vodka in schools. 

Not so fast.  From Powerline: 

Lost in all the fake news about President Trump’s alleged affinity for Russia is the real news that he has tapped a harsh critic of Vladimir Putin to be the White House senior director for Russia and Europe. The Putin-critic he reportedly has selected is Fiona Hill, a former intelligence officer now with the Brookings Institution.

Hill was on the National Intelligence Council from 2006-09, serving under Presidents Bush and Obama. She has argued in favor of keeping sanctions in place on Russia in response to Moscow’s aggression in Crimea and Ukraine. In addition, she has argued that Putin’s desire for a “weakened U.S. presidency” is behind his meddling in the 2016 president election. If so, as I have suggested, it’s looking like a case of “mission accomplished.”

Hill is more than just a conventional critic of Putin. She is the co-author of Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin. According to The New Yorker, the book describes Putin’s system as a “protection racket” in which he views himself as the “CEO of Russia, Inc.,” and is served by “crony oligarchs.” “In reality,” Hill writes, “his leadership style is more like that of a mafia family Don.”

The selection of Hill has been praised by liberals who have expressed what I assume are good faith concerns about what the Trump administration’s Russia policy will end up being. For example, Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Obama called it a “great hire,” adding that “Fiona is both a first-class scholar and an experienced former government official.”

COMMENT:  Hill is not exactly a Kremlin lover, not the kind a Kremlin lover would appoint.  I wonder what the anti-Trump will say about this.  Never mind.  They might not even notice.

March 6, 2017       Permalink

A REAL AUTHORITY SPEAKS – AT 8:57 A.M. ET:  With all kinds of creatures weighing in on the wiretapping story, it's a relief to have a real expert render an opinion.  Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served under George W. Bush, assesses the controversy.  From The Hill:

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Sunday said that President Trump is likely correct that there was surveillance on Trump Tower for intelligence purposes, but incorrect in accusing former President Barack Obama of ordering the wiretapping.

“I think he’s right in that there was surveillance and that it was conducted at the behest of the attorney general — at the Justice Department,” Mukasey told ABC’s “This Week.”

Trump on Saturday accused Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in New York City just before the November election.

A spokesman for Obama denied that the former president or the White House ordered any such surveillance.

"A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice," Lewis said in a statement.

"As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen," Lewis added. "Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."

Mukasey, who served as the attorney general under former President George W. Bush, said he believes there was surveillance on Trump Tower after reading certain news reports.

Mukasey said if there were a wiretap on Trump Tower, it would mean that there was suspicion someone had been acting as Russian agent.

COMMENT:  One thing that might also be considered is that any wiretapping could have been conducted by a secret contractor, Watergate style.  Recall that the Watergate "break-in" was carried out by a clandestine group called "the plumbers," on behalf of some people in the Nixon 1972 presidential campaign.  The assumptions now are focusing only on the FBI, which may be too narrow.

It's unlikely we'll know the real story until the Congressional probes are held.  Recall also that it was a Congressional inquiry that led to the discovery of the Nixon taping system in the White House.  Alexander Butterfield, a Nixon administration official, revealed it in sworn testimony.

March 6,  2017     Permalink

MARCH 5,  2017

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

A SECRET REVEALED – FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:   "Barbra Streisand says Donald Trump is making her gain weight. The singer tweeted on Saturday that news involving the president affects her morning routine.  "Donald Trump is making me gain weight. I start the day with liquids, but after the morning news, I eat pancakes smothered in maple syrup!" the singer tweeted on Saturday.   Her comments come after Trump recently claimed the Obama administration wiretapped into his Trump Tower phones during the 2016 presidential election. The White House asked Congress to investigate the matter on Sunday.  "Trump just accused Obama of tapping his phones. Seriously crazy times," added Streisand. "Time for more pancakes."  I think the president should change his policies just for Barbra, don't you? 

A COMMIE CRISIS – FROM BBC:   Russian officials are coming under pressure to check if Disney's new film Beauty and the Beast breaches the country's law against "gay propaganda".  Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky said action would be taken after the checks while an MP described the film as "shameless propaganda of sin".  The live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast features Disney's first ever gay character and love scene.  A Russian law prohibits the spreading of "gay propaganda" among minors.  The 2013 legislation, which has angered human rights activists and the international gay community, describes homosexuality as "non-traditional sexual relations".  Oh, can you imagine the anguish amongst the reds on Western college campuses?  How to explain this?  What to do?  The motherland has abandoned them!

PENCE TO CARRY THE FLAG – FROM CAMPUS REFORM:   Mike Pence will be the first U.S. vice president to deliver the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, which traditionally invites the president during his first year in office.  “It is fitting that in the 175th year of our founding on Indiana soil that Notre Dame recognize a native son who served our state and now the nation with quiet earnestness, moral conviction and a dedication to the common good characteristic of true statesmen,” Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins told Notre Dame News...The selection process was nonetheless contentious, with preemptive petitions and protests demanding that the university withhold its traditional invitation from Donald Trump.  Trump would have been disrupted by the adolescent left.  Pence was wise to accept the invitation, giving the new administration a banner to carry at an iconic institution.  I hope he mentions President Trump favorably in his speech, despite the probable boos.

March 5,  2017     Permalink 

EDUCATION MARCHES ON – AT 12:52 P.M. ET:   There isn't a day that goes by without a story like this.  Today's children may turn out to be the worst educated in modern history.  It's bad in the U.S., but it's worse in Britain and Europe.  From Heatstreet: 

Cardiff University in the UK has told students and staff to avoid gendered words like “sportsmanship” and “manpower,” also saying that “first name” or “forename” is preferable to “Christian name.”

The inclusive-language guidelines, which have been in place for a few years but were first reported by the Telegraph Thursday, are an effort to “promote fairness and equality through raising awareness about potentially discriminatory vocabulary.”

Cardiff takes the policy one step further than similar ones recently rolled out at other Western schools: Most colleges say their inclusive-language guidelines are merely recommendations. But at Cardiff, students who use banned words and phrases could face discipline under the university’s bullying and harassment policy, while employees may also face repercussions, the Daily Mail reported.

The Welsh school’s guidelines offer a litany of advice, warning students and staff to avoid gendered language. It specifically mentions dozens of words to avoid, also offering broad guidelines about how to talk about disabled or transgender people.

“Don’t be too anxious about the use of language, though,” the policy says. “Blind people do use terms like ‘see you later’ and being too careful can make conversation painful for both parties.”

COMMENT:  We hope each day that this kind of madness will soon end, that it's just a trend that will exhaust itself.  I'm not so sure.  The West generally has become remarkably immature, and convinced of its own inferiority.  The colleges of today are producing the teachers of tomorrow.  Only a concerted backlash by more mature, more reasoned people – and there is a backlash building – can reverse the catastrophic trends that we see building.

March 5, 2017       Permalink

ANOTHER PEACEFUL BERKELEY PROTEST – AT 12:35 P.M. ET:   I guess there were some anti-Trump people out there just exercising their First Amendment rights.  From Breitbart: 

Ten people were arrested in Berkeley, California on Saturday following an anti-Trump protest that sought to counter a march in support of President Trump.

“A total of 10 people were arrested, including five for battery, four for assault with a deadly weapon and one for resisting arrest,” reported The Marin Independent Journal on Saturday. “Police reported items confiscated among the combatants were: ‘metal pipes, bats, 2x4s and pieces of wood. A group with bricks was detained, and their bricks confiscated.'”

“Some anti-Trump protesters threw things at Trump supporters. Berkeley police made occasional forays into the crowd, but mostly held back,” they continued. “Protesters spilled out into Martin Luther King Junior Way and were fighting in the middle of the street, and there were people punching each other on the sidewalks. Some people had bloody faces. One pro-Trump supporter was apparently sprayed in the face with Mace.”

COMMENT:  Nothing to see, nothing to see.  We must understand the frustration of the protesters, who are so upset at losing an election.  We must respect their sense of cultural vulnerability and lack of privilege.

We note with satisfaction that ten people were arrested, although, since it's Berkeley, they'll probably be released and given college credit for time spent in jail. 

March 5, 2017       Permalink

THE RIGHT MOVE – AT 11:48 A.M. ET:  The White House is asking for a Congressional probe into charges that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower during the presidential campaign.  From Fox: 

The White House on Sunday called for congressional investigations into its claims the Obama administration meddled in the 2016 election cycle in an attempt to gather information on then-Republican nominee Donald Trump.

“Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in the statement.

“President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.”

The statement follows an explosive allegation Saturday by Trump that former President Barack Obama ordered phones wiretapped at Trump Tower and also states that nobody in the administration “will comment further until such oversight is conducted.”

Trump’s wiretap allegations, in a series of tweets Saturday, and the ensuing White House statement are the latest developments in the ongoing story about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential race -- particularly Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to influence the election for Trump over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

COMMENT:  Trump is taking the right step.  I only hope that Republicans on Capitol Hill are awake enough to pounce, and grant the president his wish. 

We're getting all kinds of conflicting stories this morning on Trump's charge.  James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, asserted that there was no wiretapping, but hedged his statement by saying that there was none that he knew of, in his area of the government.  Not much of a denial.

Former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that Trump's charge was likely accurate, but that the impetus for the wiretapping probably came from the Justice Department.

We will get answers only through a thorough, public investigation.  The press is already siding with the president (shock of shocks), but experienced, determined lawyers and political operators can speak over the heads of the press.

March 5,  2017     Permalink