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MARCH 9,  2017

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

INNOVATION IN CHICAGO – FROM FOX:   On the south side of Chicago, in one of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods, brazen criminals occasionally hit the gangster’s jackpot: they loot freight containers carrying shiny, new guns.  The guns – boxes and boxes of them – are part of shipments that are destined for gun companies or gun shops across the country. But as gangsters have caught on to the practice, they are ransacking these trains and stealing weapons that eventually make their way to the city’s blood-soaked streets.  "Any time you have individuals who can go in and steal guns from a train, that makes the environment very toxic," said Pastor Cory Brooks, who leads a church around the corner from the freight yard.   Remember, it's Trump's fault.  Or maybe it's Bush. 

INCREDIBLE – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:    Stung by recent election defeats, Democrats are leading the charge to lower the voting age to 17, with a little help from liberal billionaire George Soros.  In California, Democratic legislators introduced this week a landmark bill, ACA 10, that would give the Golden State the nation’s youngest statewide voting age by lowering the threshold from 18 to 17 in the name of reversing the slide in voter turnout.  “Young people are our future,” said Democratic Assembly member Evan Low, the measure’s sponsor. “Lowering the voting age will help give them a voice in the democratic process and instill a lifelong habit of voting.”  The proposal comes as the most ambitious of a host of efforts to chip away at the 18-year-old voting age as Democrats seek to bring into the fold younger voters, who traditionally support more liberal causes and candidates than do their elders.  Why not lower the voting age to five, which represents the intellectual level of the Democratic Party?

ARE WE ALONE?  OR NOT? – FROM SPACE.COM:  Bizarre flashes of cosmic light may actually be generated by advanced alien civilizations, as a way to accelerate interstellar spacecraft to tremendous speeds, a new study suggests.  Astronomers have catalogued just 20 or so of these brief, superbright flashes, which are known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), since the first one was detected in 2007. FRBs seem to be coming from galaxies billions of light-years away, but what's causing them remains a mystery.  "Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven't identified a possible natural source with any confidence," study co-author Avi Loeb, a theorist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement Thursday (March 9). "An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking."  These advanced alien civilizations just don't know how to communicate.  They should join Facebook and friend us.

March 9, 2017       Permalink

FIGHTING BACK – AT 10:33 A.M. ET:  The CIA took a tremendous hit this week, with the release of classified sources and methods by Wikileaks.   You'd think there'd be a greater sense of outrage and urgency.  We have a strange indifference.

And yet, Washington is fighting back.  I want to see the betrayers caught and prosecuted.  From Fox:   

Less than 24 hours after WikiLeaks published what it described as the “entire hacking capacity of the CIA,” a federal criminal probe by a specialized FBI unit has begun, Fox News confirmed.

But while tracking down moles is nothing new for the FBI or the CIA, experts are suggesting that this search could prove to be particularly difficult.

The 2010 leak perpetrated by Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, then known as Bradley Manning, inspired President Obama to create a group dedicated solely to tracking down & catching government leakers. Manning was caught after revealing the extent of her actions to an American hacker, who later testified against her. A short time later, Obama would announce the creation of the National Insider Threat Task Force.

The NITTF was formed "to prevent, deter and detect compromises of classified information by malicious insiders," according to its website. Despite the group’s singular focus on this issue, the NITTF was pointing out in a foreboding Tweet earlier this week that "all of the firewalls in the world won’t stop an insider who is already on the inside of these firewalls."

The formation of the group also did little to stop NSA leaker Edward Snowden from giving WikiLeaks a trove of documents on government surveillance back in 2013. In Snowden's case, he actually unmasked himself as the leaker, and has been on the run ever since.

COMMENT:  The pursuit must be intense, and scare the daylights out of anyone who would do this again.  If caught and found guilty, the betrayers should be given life sentences.  Or two life sentences.

March 9, 2017       Permalink

THE TRUMP EFFECT – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:   Illegal immigration has plunged since Trump took office.  From the Washington Times: 

Illegal immigration across the southwest border plummeted in the weeks after President Trump took office, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly announced Wednesday, calling the drop an early sign that Mr. Trump’s get-tough policies are working.

In addition to a drop in the number of illegal immigrants nabbed while attempting to cross, Mr. Kelly said, they have seen a dramatic spike in the rates charged by smugglers paid to sneak people into the U.S.

Routes that cost $3,500 in November now cost $8,000, he said — another signal that smuggling cartels’ business is suffering.

Mr. Kelly called the drop in apprehensions unprecedented. The number of people caught at the border is considered a good indication of the overall flow, so a drop in apprehensions is believed to signal a drop in total number of illegal crossings.

“This trend is encouraging because it means many fewer people are putting themselves and their families at risk of exploitation, assault and injury by human traffickers and the physical dangers of the treacherous journey north,” Mr. Kelly said.

All told, 23,589 people were caught trying to enter without permission at the border in February. That was the lowest number for the month in years and a 40 percent drop from the 42,504 caught in January.

COMMENT:  The psychological impact of a president can be as important as his policies.  Obama flashed weakness and appeasement.  Trump, despite many faults, flashes strength and determination.  Apparently,

March 9, 2017       Permalink

A SHARP WARNING ON NORTH KOREA – AT 9:29 A.M. ET:  North Korea could soon be in a position to strike Hawaii.  From the Washington Free Beacon:

North Korea could soon have the capacity to launch an attack on Hawaii that would devastate America's Pacific military bases, accelerating the need for the United States to upgrade missile defenses in the area.

The United States today relies on ground-based ballistic missile interceptors deployed in California and Alaska to protect Hawaii, but these defenses would do little to guard U.S. territory in the Pacific against a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which officials believe is nearing completion.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency in February test fired a new SM-3 Block IIA missile from Hawaii that successfully intercepted an incoming ballistic missile, but the Pentagon does not maintain a permanent missile defense installation or detection capabilities on the Hawaiian Islands.

The Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii hosts an experimental, land-based ballistic missile defense system called Aegis Ashore. The facility served as a prototype for the U.S. missile defense facility in Romania, which was declared operational last year, and another in Poland that will be completed in 2018.

Ariel Cohen, director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources, and Geopolitics at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, told the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday that the Defense Department needs to immediately upgrade the Aegis Ashore facility in Hawaii from experimental to operational to guard against North Korean aggression.

"Senior national security leaders have stated that the U.S. needs to work off the assumption that North Korea will have ICBM capabilities soon, and in this business ‘soon' could mean five to 10 years, or earlier," Cohen said.

COMMENT:  Ah, for the good old days, when our greatest worry was that Japanese warships would come 'round Diamond Head.  We guessed wrong on that one, and it must not happen again. 

March 9,  2017     Permalink

MARCH 8,  2017

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

MELANIA SOARS – FROM CNN:   Washington (CNN) The more Americans learn about first lady Melania Trump, the more they like her.  Her favorability rating is up 16 points since her husband was sworn-in as President, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday in CNN's COVER/LINE newsletter.
Full poll results:  About 52% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Melania Trump, an increase from 36% pre-inauguration. In February 2016, the former model's favorable rating was a paltry 24%, her unfavorable was 31% and 23% had never even heard of her. Now, just 3% say they don't know who the first lady is, and her unfavorable rate has held steady at 32%.  Most of the recent uptick in favorable results are due to those undecided Americans, or those who had yet to form an opinion. Pre-inauguration, 23% had no opinion about the first lady, compared with 12% now.  She has conducted herself with class and style.  I hope her rating goes higher.

KNOW YOUR VOTERS – FROM SEVEN DAYS:   Rutland Mayor Chris Louras, who endured months of withering criticism for his plan to bring Syrian refugees to the city, lost his reelection bid on Tuesday.  In unofficial voting results, David Allaire, a city alderman and leading critic of the resettlement, trounced Louras, a 10-year mayoral incumbent, by a 776-vote margin, according to results cited by the Rutland Herald and WCAX-TV.  "I'm simply wishing him luck and I'm moving on," Louras told Seven Days Tuesday night. He declined further comment, saying he would "not hazard a guess" as to what the election results say about Rutland's support for refugees.  Allaire did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.  We are a nation of immigrants, but that does not mean we must support every nut-brained immigration proposal put forward by the liberal chic crowd.  Rutland sent a message.

IN CASE WE RUN OUT ON EARTH – FROM PHYS.ORG:   The International Potato Center (CIP) launched a series of experiments to discover if potatoes can grow under Mars atmospheric conditions and thereby prove they are also able to grow in extreme climates on Earth. This Phase Two effort of CIP's proof of concept experiment to grow potatoes in simulated Martian conditions began on February 14, 2016 when a tuber was planted in a specially constructed CubeSat contained environment built by engineers from University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) in Lima based upon designs and advice provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Ames Research Center (NASA ARC), California. Preliminary results are positive.  I have personally put in an order for the first French fries to be made on Mars.  I'll bring my own burger.

March 8,  2017     Permalink

WILL JAPAN BECOME A MAJOR MILITARY POWER AGAIN? – AT 10:30 A.M. ET:  This is an extraordinarily important story.  Japan, which for years was reluctant to get into the major-military game, a reflection of the defeat it suffered in World War II, is now threatened by North Korean belligerency.  Some in Japan are arguing for a much more potent Japanese military force.  From Reuters: 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Rattled by North Korean military advances, influential Japanese lawmakers are pushing harder for Japan to develop the ability to strike preemptively at the missile facilities of its nuclear-armed neighbor.

Japan has so far avoided taking the controversial and costly step of acquiring bombers or weapons such as cruise missiles with enough range to strike other countries, relying instead on its U.S. ally to take the fight to its enemies.

But the growing threat posed by Pyongyang, including Monday's simultaneous launch of four rockets, is adding weight to an argument that aiming for the archer rather than his arrows is a more effective defense.

"If bombers attacked us or warships bombarded us, we would fire back. Striking a country lobbing missiles at us is no different," said Itsunori Onodera, a former defense minister who heads a ruling Liberal Democratic Party committee looking at how Japan can defend against the North Korean missile threat. "Technology has advanced and the nature of conflict has changed."

For decades, Japan has been stretching the limits of its post-war, pacifist constitution. Successive governments have said Tokyo has the right to attack enemy bases overseas when the enemy's intention to attack Japan is evident, the threat is imminent and there are no other defense options.

But while previous administrations shied away from acquiring the hardware to do so, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP has been urging him to consider the step.

COMMENT:   It is not a stretch to suggest that some Japanese planners could be thinking of pushing their country to become a nucelar power.  Japan is still haunted by Hiroshima and Nagsaki, but a new generation, viewing North Korea's nuclear capability, might not shy away from the ultimate step.

March 8, 2017       Permalink

INCREDIBLE – JUST IN – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  A new preliminary jobs report for February, the first full month of the Trump administration, is spectacular.  From CNBC: 

Companies added jobs at a blistering pace in February, with a notable shift away from the service-sector positions that have dominated hiring for years, according to a report Wednesday.

Employment in the private sector surged by 298,000 for the month, with goods producers adding 106,000, ADP and Moody's Analytics said. Construction jobs swelled by 66,000 and manufacturing added 32,000.

The total shattered market expectations of 190,000, according to economists surveyed by ADP. The blockbuster report also solidified market expectations for the Fed to hike interest rates next week. Probability for an increase jumped to 91 percent after the release, according to the CME.

The report encompassed the first full month under President Donald Trump, who has pledged to rebuild the nation's aging infrastructure system.

COMMENT:  Terrific report.  Of course, the Dems will claim credit, saying it's all based on Obama policies.  But those policies weren't increasing manufacturing jobs.  Manufacturers now proceed with confidence that Republican policies will support their growth.

The Democratic Party increasingly looks like a party of the last century, or before.

March 8, 2017       Permalink

NOW IT BEGINS – AT 8:53 A.M. ET:  After weeks of bitter politics following President Trump's inauguration, the Republicans have rolled out their first major initiative – a rewrite of Obamacare. 

The first response has been decidedly mixed.  The Democrats, of course, are completely against anything Republicans will propose, another indication of the decline of their party into adolescence.  And Republicans are split on the details of the proposed law.

There'll be plenty of negotiation.  But President Trump is now exerting executive leadership, making it clear that a repair of the current Obamacare system must happen.  From the Washington Times:

President Trump urged lawmakers Tuesday to swiftly approve a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare so he can move on to the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

“There’s going to be no slowing down, no waiting, no more excuses by anybody,” Mr. Trump told top House Republican lawmakers at a White House meeting on the new health care legislation. “We’re going to get it done.”

After Congress tackles the health care law that was introduced in the House Monday, Mr. Trump said eagerly, “we work on the tax cut.”

The administration is planning a major tax cut for businesses and individuals by the end of this year.

“I know exactly what we’re looking at, most of us know exactly the plan,” Mr. Trump said of tax relief. “It’s going to put our country in great shape and we’re going to reduce taxes for companies and for people, and I can use the word again — massively. It’s going to be a big tax cut, the biggest since Reagan, maybe bigger than Reagan.”

Congress must complete work on the new health care law before addressing tax cuts, however. The president said Obamacare is “collapsing,” and he endorsed the new GOP plan.

COMMENT:  As a negotiator, the president knows that the current GOP plan will go through revision and compromise.  But he is doing what his predecessor failed to do.  He is creating a sense of urgency, and he is taking command.

Far better than "leading from behind."

The new health plan will now go to House committees, where the bargaining really starts.  Maybe Washington will actually get something done.

March 8,  2017     Permalink