SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AFTER MIDNIGHT, BUT WE'LL COUNT IT AS PART OF FRIDAY'S EDITION:

IRRITATING – FROM STUDY FINDS:  KENT, England — A third of natural-born Americans have thought about packing up and living elsewhere — outside the United States — at some point in the future, but it may not be for the reason you think, a new study finds.  Researchers from the University of Kent in the United Kingdom and Tufts University in the U.S. say that the most popular reason (87.4 percent) to live abroad is the simple desire to explore the world. Surprisingly, whether a person identifies as liberal or conservative politically had no correlation to their hopes of moving overseas.  “While one might think that ideological orientation plays a role, at least in this pre-Trump survey, we found out that it did not, at least not directly,” says Dr. Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels, of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies, in a release.  Hard to interpret this without knowing how Americans felt, say, 20 or 40 years ago.  I haven't seen any research on that.

A WARNING TO US – FROM THE SUN:   CHINA has successfully tested a submarine-launched missile that can unleash a nuclear holocaust anywhere in the United States, sources have revealed.  The game-changing Chinese military flight tested the Julong-3 missile that will be deployed with the next generation of ballistic missile submarines, which are in the pipeline.  Chinese authorities have denied the test but a well- placed source within the American military has confirmed to The Diplomat the launch took place last month.  A US Department of Defence report said: “China’s four operational JIN-class SSBNs represent China’s first credible, seabased nuclear deterrent.”  Geopolitical analysts widely fear a showdown between the United States and China over who controls the South China Sea as well as the independence of Taiwan which could spiral out of control and lead to World War III.  More and more, it is China, not Russia, that appears the greater threat in the future.  Chinese research and development is relentless.  Russia is secondary.

GALLUP GALLOPS BACK – FROM POLITICO:   Gallup, the country’s best-known polling firm, is once again scaling back on the political surveys that have made it so famous.  Only a year after Gallup switched its presidential tracking poll — the ever-present reading of the president’s approval rating — from daily to weekly, the company will announce Friday that it plans to measure President Donald Trump’s job-approval rating only on a monthly basis. It's all part of what the company calls its new, "more global perspective," which de-emphasizes U.S. politics.  It also includes a leadership change, with Mohamed Younis — who has focused more on polling outside the United States in nearly a decade at Gallup — replacing Frank Newport as editor in chief. Newport has served in that role since 1990.  Too bad, but Gallup has increasingly become a voice of the past.  It used to be one of a very few major polling organizations.  Now there are many. 

December 21, 2018