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SEPTEMBER 27,  2017

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

MAJOR AUTOMOTIVE NEWS – FROM CNN:   Washington (CNN) Saudi Arabia is easing restrictions on women driving, finally allowing almost half its population to get behind the wheel.
A royal decree has been issued that will allow women in the country to drive, the Saudi Foreign ministry said Tuesday on its official Twitter account.  A committee has been formed to implement the ruling and it will present recommendations within 30 days. Then the government will have until June 24, 2018, to implement the new decree.  "This is a historic big day in our kingdom," Prince Khaled bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, said Tuesday in a briefing with reporters.  Can you believe, in this day and age, that this is news?

IMPORTANT CRIME NEWS – FROM THE SMOKING GUN:  A gunman “dressed as a Coca-Cola bottle” yesterday robbed a Kentucky restaurant, police report.  Investigators say that the suspect stuck up a Rally’s restaurant in Henderson just before 7 AM Monday. The robber, armed with a handgun, stole over $500 from the closed eatery, which was only staffed by a manager (who was not injured during the robbery).  The Henderson Police Department described the robber as a white male who fled the crime scene in a gray minivan driven by another white male.  The gunman’s Coca-Cola outfit may have been some kind of Halloween costume, said a police spokesperson who added that investigators are attempting to access surveillance footage that may have recorded the suspect.  Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call the local Crime Stoppers organization.  Just be on the lookout for someone dressed as a Coca-Cola bottle.  If he's dressed as a Pepsi bottle, he's just a wannabe.

AN IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION – FROM THE WRAP:  It doesn’t look like any NFL players will be disciplined for kneeling or locking arms in protest during the playing of the National Anthem. But First Amendment experts say most employees can be fired from many jobs for exercising their freedom of speech.  Federal law does not protect workers in the private sector — only government employees.  “There is no federal law protecting against discrimination or retaliation for political activity” at private companies, Paula Brantner, a senior adviser at Workplace Fairness, told TheWrap. “A lot of people think they have First Amendment rights, but those only apply to government employees.”  There was a time when most journalists knew this – it was basic professional knowledge – but no more.  I'm glad someone finally explained the law.

September 27, 2017       Permalink

A CHANGE ON THE GRIDIRON? – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:   After all the hoopla about "taking a knee," there are some reports of a change of heart at some football teams.  We hope, but can't guarantee.  From CBS in Boston: 

BOSTON (CBS) — Just one week after many members of the Patriots kneeled during the national anthem, a new report indicates that they will all stand together as a team next time out.

A league source told CSNNE’s Gary Tanguay on Tuesday that all Patriots players will stand during the national anthem before next Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers at Gillette Stadium. Many stood and interlocked their arms during the anthem last Sunday before the game against the Texans, while a large portion kneeled.

Teams across the league had similar demonstrations last Sunday, which were mostly a response to controversial comments made by President Donald Trump about NFL players who sit or kneel during the national anthem. The president described such players as ‘sons of bitches’ during a rally in Alabama last Friday, also declaring that they should be fired for doing so.

COMMENT:  There are reports out of Dallas that the Cowboys will also be united next weekend.  We have no detailed reports of the discussions that have been going on, but it's clear that the political demonstrations on the field during the anthem did not go down well with a majority of Americans, and that financial losses can be expected. 

It would be better if the NFL got back to football, solved some of its other problems, and started building audience once more.  It would also be better if ESPN got off the politics kick.  People don't tune in to a sports program to hear a political lecture.

We have enough politics.  Play ball.

September 27, 2017       Permalink

OBAMACARE GETTING UNPOPULAR AGAIN – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:   Now that repeal of Obamacare is temporarily off the table, the program is becoming unpopular again with the American people.  From IBD: 

Republicans should have read the latest ObamaCare polls before deciding to give up on repeal.

Public support for the law has dropped sharply, while most like the idea of giving states greater control over health care.

On Monday, the latest attempt to repeal and replace ObamaCare hit a wall after Maine Sen. Susan Collins came out against the Cassidy-Graham bill, joining John McCain and Rand Paul. The bill would have turned ObamaCare's subsidies into block grants, and given states wide latitude on how to regulate health insurance.

Democrats — and newly minted health care expert Jimmy Kimmel — cheered. But with repeal more or less off the table, the public's mood about ObamaCare has soured considerably.

A monthly Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that just 46% say they have a favorable view of the law — down from 52% a month ago. ObamaCare's unfavorability rating shot up from 39% in August to 44%.

According to Kaiser, "the decline in favorability is across all groups, including Democrats, independents and Republicans."

The survey was taken after the previous Senate repeal attempt failed, but before the current one collapsed.

What could cause the sudden shift in public opinion? Maybe it's because liberal activists and the media have stopped propagandizing the public about how great ObamaCare is, and now people are starting to once again notice its fatal flaws.

Namely: the lack of choice and the exploding premiums that are pricing millions of middle-class families out of the insurance market.

COMMENT:  Obamacare will only get worse because it's running out of money.  It was poorly designed from the start.

However, the GOP botched repeal.  It had seven years to come up with an alternative, and didn't.  The Republicans in Congress failed, and they know it.  They now move on to tax reform, and they've got to get this right.  Americans must receive, and feel, a tax cut for 2018.  It would be great to make it retroactive to 2017.   If Republicans can't get this done, they will be goners next November.

September 27, 2017       Permalink

CLOSE ONE FOR THE SECRETARY – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  Secretary of Defense James Mattis was the apparent target of a Taliban attack during his visit to Afghanistan.  From Daily Mail:

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was the intended target of a rocket attack near an Afghanistan airport on Wednesday, according to the Taliban.

At least five Afghan civilians were wounded when up to 40 rockets, including 29 rocket-propelled grenades, were fired toward Kabul international airport after Mattis touched down.
Mattis condemned the attack as a 'criminal act by terrorists', adding that it was a 'classic definition of what the Taliban are up to here now'. 

The Taliban claimed responsibility and its spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, tweeted that Mattis's plane had been the target of the attack.

The volley of missiles struck near the military section of the airport, said Afghan interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish.

Danish said Afghan security forces surrounded an area where where they suspected the rockets might have been fired. 

'A search operation is underway in the area by police units,' he said. 

Special forces troops brought the attack under control and three of the people involved were all killed, according to Danish.

The attack came hours after Mattis arrived in the Afghan capital - the first member of Donald Trump's cabinet to visit the war-torn country since his pledge to stay the course in America's longest war.

COMMENT:   This reminds us that we are at war, and that the war can endanger even officials at the highest level. 

September 27,  2017     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 26,  2017

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

WEAK KNEES – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  The first poll of NFL fans following this weekend's moves by dozens of players to take a protest knee during the playing of the National Anthem finds that most want the pros to stand and they are also turning off the games as a result of politics.  The survey from Remington Research Group found that 64 percent want players to stand for the national anthem.  Of the 51 percent who have watched less football this season, 69 percent cite player protests as the reason.  And 60 percent believe that players should find another place to protest the flag, President Trump, race, and other issues.   The results are not surprising.  Now let's see how this plays out as the NFL and club owners are hit in the pocket.

SCHOLARS AT WORK – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Students at Reed College are protesting a required humanities class for freshmen that focuses on texts from the great thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome, saying that “forcing students to take a mandatory Western Civilization course is really harmful.”  The self-named “Reedies Against Racism” student protest group began their efforts against “Humanities 110 – Introduction to Humanities: Greece and the Ancient Mediterranean” last September, claiming the class should be “reformed to represent the voices of people of color” in a list of 25 demands.  The protest continued this school year, as students interrupted the lecture, got in screaming matches with students, boycotted classes, and vowed to have silent protests during every lecture. The student activists have also brought in mental healthcare advocates for students who have reported having “panic attacks” due to the course material.  What pathetic creatures.  Even calling them students is a stretch.  The college should firmly reject their absurd demands and offer them transfers to less-demanding schools.

ALABAMA RESULT – FROM FOX:   Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was projected to soundly defeat Sen. Luther Strange in Tuesday's Senate primary runoff, overcoming heavy GOP establishment support for the incumbent, including from President Trump himself.  The hard-fought Alabama runoff battle had pitted Trump against some of his most loyal supporters including former chief strategist Steve Bannon, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and a slew of House conservatives who all backed Moore. Despite his outsider image, Moore seemed to have the edge over Strange from the start.  With 92 percent of the precincts reporting, Moore led Strange by 55 percent to 45 percent, a margin of more than 41,000 votes. State officials estimated a low turnout of between 12 and 15 percent of eligible voters.  Moore had the support of many religious conservatives.  He will be a colorful senator, someone who defies authority and gets himself into trouble easily.  He is always controversial. 

September 26,  2017     Permalink

WHAT AN EXCITING CONTEST – AT 12:18 P.M. ET:  And we think we have a winner – Detroit is the most violent city in the United States!  Cheer please.  From USA Today:

DETROIT — Detroit regained the title as the most violent big city in America in 2016, witnessing more murders last year than Los Angeles, which has four times as many people, according to new FBI crime figures released Monday.

But Detroit Police Chief James Craig disputed the FBI's numbers, stating: "Just because it's coming out of the FBI" doesn't mean it's accurate.

"I reject it," Craig said of the FBI report, saying his own data using a new software system shows violent crime went down 5% in 2016, and, has been trending downward since 2013. 

"I am confident the Detroit police crime statistics are very accurate," Craig said at a press conference Monday.

Mayor Mike Duggan declined comment.

Specifically, Craig took issue with the FBI's number for aggravated assaults in Detroit, which he said is inflated by more than 1,000. According to the FBI data, Detroit saw 9,882 assaults in 2016, but the DPD data says there were 8,916.

According to the FBI's 2016 Uniform Crime report, 13,705 violent crimes — including murders, rapes, assaults and robberies — were reported in Detroit last year.  That's a 15.7% increase from the year before, which saw 11,346 violent crimes in Detroit.

COMMENT:  Okay, let Detroit shoot it out, er, compete, with some other city for the coveted title of crime capital.  Someone will be disappointed, but that's life.

Actually, the whole thing is disgraceful. 

And precisely how many knees will it take at an NFL game to save one black life? 

September 26, 2017       Permalink

AGAIN, THE DREADED LETTERS – EMP –  AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  There is renewed concern about the ability of North Korea to launch an EMP attack on the United States, which could devastate us as a functioning nation for months.  From Fox:   

For more than 15 years, security and intelligence officials — including former CIA Director James Woolsey — have been raising the alarm bells about the vulnerability of the U.S. power grid to an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. Only now as tensions with North Korea quickly escalate — with the rogue nation refusing to back down from its nuclear testing and threats of such an onslaught — is the matter really generating attention.

But according to U.S. defense and security officials, while there are players purporting to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure given millions of American lives on the line, the reality is that no one really knows what will happen and what can be done.

“We recognize that an EMP event would have extremely dire consequences for the entire country, but where the challenge comes is in attempting to quantify those impacts,” one high-ranking Department of Homeland Security official, who requested anonymity, told Fox News. “This is not something we have had a lot of real world experience with.”

Earlier this month, state news agencies in the Kim Jong Un-dictated country explicitly cautioned that it could hit the U.S. with an EMP offensive. A hydrogen bomb detonated at a high altitude would create an EMP that potentially could abolish prominent parts of the electrical grid. The higher the bomb’s detonation, the wider the scope of destruction. And given that high-altitude nuclear tests were prohibited as per a 1963 treaty, from the U.S. side, there is little scientific data to understand the devastation of a detonation on modern infrastructure.

COMMENT:  We should prepare for the worst, but probably won't.  This issue first surfaced seriously in the early 1990s.  Since then, we have become a nation almost entirely dependent on computers, so the electric grid is only one of our worries. 

Does North Korea have the capacity to launch an EMP attack?  It would require the ability to send a missile, with a nuclear warhead, high above this country, and explode the warhead at that high altitude.  The electro-magnetic pulse that results could, according to the theory, destroy our electric grid and melt our computer circuits. 

Congress should hold a new set of hearings on the problem, primarily to publicize it and get public and Congressional attention.

September 26, 2017       Permalink

WHERE STANDS FOOTBALL? – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  Even without the current controversy over knees, it turns out that football is declining in popularity in the United States.  From Rasmussen Reports: 

Football still reigns supreme as America’s favorite sport, but it appears to have lost fans over the last five years.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 41% of American Adults still say football is their favorite sport to follow, but that's down from 53% in November 2012 when we first asked this question. Only 12% now name “America’s pastime,” baseball, as their favorite, while just as many (12%) say basketball. Auto racing, tennis and soccer rate four percent (4%) support each, while three percent (3%) choose hockey and golf. Eight percent (8%) prefer some other sport. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted on September 20-21, 2017 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

COMMENT:   That drop is substantial, and is likely to continue.  I happen to love football, but it is increasingly seen as a dangerous, even life-threatening sport.  The sluggishness with which the NFL has dealt with injuries has damaged the sport's image.  It is now common to hear stories of parents who will not let their sons play football. 

It often seems ridiculous to see 300-pound men piling into each other.  The purpose is to win the game, not kill the other guy.

Also, the increasing politicization of some football broadcasting, especially at ESPN, is leading to lower ratings, which must translate into lower popularity for football.  Football, in many eyes, is now seen as a political sport.  Left-wing journalists, including sports journalists, are helping that along.

Finally, sports often reflect the nature of life in a particular country.  Baseball lost favor in part because it was seen, by younger generations, as a slow game in a faster-paced age.   Football has speed, and action in every play. 

September 26,  2017     Permalink