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

BYE-BYE – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Tennessee Titans player Rishard Matthews tweeted Thursday that he’ll quit the NFL if the league implements a rule forcing players to stand during the anthem.  “No I will be done playing football,” Matthews tweeted and ultimately deleted when asked if he would be willing to face punishment for not standing if a new rule is implemented.  Ignorance.  Absolute lack of respect for anyone else.  I hope the NFL calls him on this, and that he bids us farewell.

THE NUT CASE IS BACK – FROM THE HILL:  The mayor of Puerto Rico's largest city said President Trump is the “Hater in Chief” after Trump said the U.S. response to the crisis in the U.S. territory couldn’t last “forever.”  “[Y]our comments about Puerto Rico are unbecoming of a Commander in Chief,” Carmen Yulín Cruz tweeted, “they seem more to come from a ‘Hater in Chief’.”  Earlier Thursday, Cruz blasted Trump for his remarks, saying he is “incapable of fulfilling the moral imperative to help the people of [Puerto Rico].”  In a statement released after her tweets, Cruz continued lambasting Trump, saying his actions are “unbecoming of a leader of the free world.”  “It is not that you do not get it, it is that you are incapable of empathy and frankly simply cannot get the job done,” Cruz said.  Cruz also issued a striking plea for help from the United Nations and other international aid organizations to “stop the genocide” in Puerto Rico.  What a complete fool.  There are thousands of federal workers and troops in Puerto Rico.  But the island was bankrupt and in terrible shape before the storm.  It is poorly run and pounded by corruption.  And the mayor of San Juan seems to imagine herself as a latter-day Evita Peron.  But the left is trying to find some way to blame Trump, just as it blamed BUSH (!!) and CHENEY (!!!!) for Hurricane Katrina.  Next you'll see the mayor taking a knee.

TV BLUES – FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:  A day after DirecTV parent AT&T said it would lose subscribers because people are ditching their satellite and cable television services — a phenomenon known as cord-cutting — shares of companies heavily invested in the TV industry tumbled.  Shares of AT&T, the culprit in Thursday's sell-off, dropped 6 percent, dragging shares of its presumed merger partner, Time Warner, down 2 percent in the process.  AT&T said in a regulatory filing that in the recently ended quarter it would report gaining 300,000 subscribers to its over-the-top digital service while losing 390,000 traditional TV subscribers, for a net loss of 90,000 subs.  While it cited several causes — including hurricanes and changing its credit standards for new customers — it was this line in the filing that Wall Street keyed on: "The video net losses were driven by heightened competition in traditional pay TV markets and OTT services ..."  Thursday's carnage included shares of AMC Networks falling 7 percent; Dish Network off 5 percent; Discovery Communications, Sinclair Broadcast Group and E.W. Scripps Co. each off 4 percent; and Charter Communications down 3 percent.   Many people feel they no longer need the traditional services.  Hmm.  I wonder if that has anything to do with their attitude toward slanted news networks and "entertainment" programs filled with political messages.  Just askin'.

October 12, 2017