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

MAJOR CONTEST NEWS – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   The University of Chicago’s admissions office is offering an incentive to its student tour guides: Come up with “a creative way to dispel the negative perception'” that the city is unsafe.  The Chicago Maroon obtained a copy of the email Assistant Director of Admissions Colleen Belak had sent out to the guides. The student who provided the message asked to remain anonymous due to a “confidentiality policy.”  In her email, Belak manages to toss in the name of the president-elect:  “If you’ve paid attention to the national news (or Donald Trump’s tweets) over the last few months, you’ll notice that the city of Chicago is often painted with a broad brush as an ‘unsafe’ or ‘scary’ place to reside,” Belak wrote to the campus tour guide listhost.   “Of course, certain realities should not be ignored, but at the end of the day most of us are proud Chicago residents with a deep love of the city,” [Belak continues].  “With that spirit in mind, we have an opportunity for you to win some money—$500 to be exact. If you are able to come up with a creative way to approach this negative perception, be it a video series, blog post, photo, or something else (and better) entirely… Keep in mind that the audience is a high school student and his/her family.”  Strange.  When I was a student at the University of Chicago many decades ago, the problem was exactly the same, word for word, line for line.  In that same period, New York, under Rudy Giuliani, lowered its murder rate 80%.  Maybe the university should award a prize for the best essay on why some places solve their problems and other places don't.

ANOTHER BRILLIANT IDEA FROM THE LEFT – FROM BREITBART:   Rosie O’Donnell, Debra Messing, Ed Asner and Michael Shannon are among the dozens of artists, entertainers, and activists who have attached their names to an effort calling for a month-long protest to stop President-elect Donald Trump.
“No! In the Name of Humanity We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!” reads a full-page ad placed in the New York Times on Wednesday by the group Refuse Fascism.  “Donald Trump, the President-elect, is assembling a regime of grave danger,” the ad says. “Millions of people in the US and around the world are filled with deep anxiety, fear, and disgust. Our anguish is right and just. Our anger must now become massive resistance –before Donald Trump is inaugurated and has the full reins of power in his hands.”  These people are insane.  I will help pay for their medication.

IT'S ACTUALLY GETTING SERIOUS – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:    Run, Hillary, run — for mayor.  Local Democratic activists said they would rally to Clinton’s side if she decided to take on Mayor de Blasio in a ­primary this year.  “If Hillary entered the race, she would be the best candidate. I would support her because we need a change in New York City,” said Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237.  Floyd, who represents school safety officers and Housing Authority workers, has clashed repeatedly with City Hall over policy.  “Hillary would be a better mayor than de Blasio. Every week we hear about investigations about fund-raising and city property being given away to real estate developers,” he said.   Clinton captured 79 percent of the vote in the five boroughs during her failed November presidential run.  The Rev. Patrick Young, pastor of First Baptist Church in East Elmhurst, Queens, said Clinton could make history by shattering the mayoral glass ceiling in Gotham.  “Hillary would have been the first female president. She would be the first woman mayor in the history of New York City,” he said.  I want to see it happen, just for the comedy.  Of course, she will claim that she is related to one of New York's early mayors, DeWitt Clinton.  It isn't true, but who'll care? 

January 6,  2017