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JANUARY 6,  2018

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

FLOP TIME – FROM AFP:  Los Angeles (AFP) - As Hollywood prepares to celebrate its achievements at the Golden Globes on Sunday, new figures show all might not be well in the film industry, with attendances at a quarter-century low.  The last 12 months have seen huge successes, with "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" and "Beauty and the Beast" raking in more than half a billion dollars each at home.  "Wonder Woman" and several Marvel superhero movies including "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and Thor: Ragnarok" also have more than pulled their weight.  But the handful of hits has masked a decline of almost six percent on the year to 1.2 billion tickets sold, the lowest total since 1992, according to Box Office Mojo.  The feature-film industry has worked hard to drive audiences away, and succeeded.  Television is the hottest medium right now, and is likely to remain so.

UFO'S OVER MANHATTAN – READ ALL ABOUT IT! – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Manhattan has gone from Studio 54 to Area 51, leading the five boroughs in sightings of unidentified flying objects over the last two years, data from the National UFO Reporting Center reveals.  Otherworldly tourists have included travelers in a “round orange orb,” a crew in a “cigar-shaped” craft and even “an unknown creature” that rudely “teleported” into one New Yorker’s back yard, according to reports made to the Washington-based group.  One Manhattan true believer claimed a close encounter — just by looking outside the gym window.  “It was rotating like a drill as it was also moving off axis and in a line towards the east,” the person explained. “As it rotated, you would be able to see four lights that would only be on one side and seen after it fully rotated. It has to be hundreds of feet long. Then after it appeared, four other smaller craft appeared that were to me saucer or spherical that blipped in and out.”   The UFO's apparently all left when they learned about New York State taxes.

AH, THE MODERN WORLD – FROM BLOOMBERG:  Saudi authorities made a fresh round of arrests of royal-family members as a group of princes staged a palace protest in the capital over the non-payment of their electricity and water bills.  Security services on Thursday arrested the 11 princes after they refused to leave Qasr Al-Hokm in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s Attorney General, Sheikh Saud Al Mojeb, said in an emailed statement. The princes, who objected to a decree that ordered the state to stop paying their utility bills, will be held at al-Ha’er prison pending their trial, Al Mojeb said.  “No one is above the law in Saudi Arabia, everyone is equal and is treated the same as others,” Al Mojeb said. “Any person, regardless of their status or position, will be held accountable should they decide not to follow the rules and regulations of the state.”  Yes, we've noticed all the equality in Saudi Arabia.  No women need apply.

January 6, 2018       Permalink

GOOD! – AT 3:28 P.M. ET:  Occasionally there are good court decisions on the West Coast.  Savor the moment.  From Breitbart: 

A court in California has ordered Antifa organizer Yvette Felarca to pay $11,000 after she filed a frivolous restraining order against former Berkeley College Republicans President Troy Worden.
In 2017, Antifa organizer Yvette Felarca filed a restraining order against former UC Berkeley College Republican president Troy Worden, citing two alleged incidents of harassment. Worden’s attorney alleges that Felarca made up two false accusations of harassment against him. He claims that Felarca used two incidents in which Worden made eye contact with her on campus as a basis for the restraining order.

Now, a California court has ordered Felarca to pay a $11,000 fine for filing a frivolous lawsuit. The funds will go directly to covering Worden’s attorney fees. In a press release, attorney Harmeet Dhillon suggested that the fine signals that Antifa can’t use the courts to silence their political opponents. “Felarca and her fellow travelers in BAMN [By Any Means Necessary]/Antifa need to learn that the California courts are not their personal plaything to use and abuse at will by filing baseless and vexatious lawsuits,” she said in the release.

“By ruling that she did not demonstrate good faith in filing the restraining order, the court recognized the frivolous nature of Felarca’s actions,” Worden’s attorney, Mark Meuser, added. “The award of attorney fees should send a strong signal that she cannot abuse the court system to silence speech.”

COMMENT:  Occasionally there is justice.   But I wouldn't count on too much of it from most courts around San Francisco and Berkeley.  This was an exception.

January 6, 2018       Permalink

FASCINATING – AT 1:53 P.M. ET:  In the Mideast, in particular, public statements do not necessarily reflect real attitudes.  All Arab nations denounced President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but the statements often seemed muted.  From the Times of Israel:

Though Egypt has publicly condemned US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and even sponsored a UN resolution rejecting the move, Cairo has quietly sought to convince the Egyptian public to accept it, the New York Times reported Saturday.

The newspaper obtained audio recordings in which an Egyptian intelligence officer, speaking with influential talk show hosts, asked them to downplay the significance of US President Donald Trump’s decision.

The officer, Cpt. Ashraf al-Kholi, is reported to have told hosts that widespread unrest over Washington’s move would “not serve Egypt’s national security interests,” as it would “revive the Islamists and Hamas. Hamas would be reborn once more.

“How is Jerusalem different from Ramallah, really?” al-Kholi asked on the recordings, as he sought to lessen the Holy City’s significance as the future capital of a Palestinian state.

Though he said Cairo would denounce Trump’s declaration, he added that, “After that, this thing will become a reality. Palestinians can’t resist and we don’t want to go to war. We have enough on our plate as you know.”

COMMENT:  I get the feeling that the political left in the West is more upset about the Jerusalem decision than are the Arab nations.  Most of them accept the reality of Israel, and the Saudis, in particular, have privately moved closer to Israel, according to reports.  The Palestinians threw a tantrum, but they always do.  The Jerusalem decision will melt away in time, especially when Trump presents his peace plan for the region, which should be soon.  Then the real bargaining begins.  If the Pals refuse to come to the peace table, the necessary heat will be applied, and it is likely to be financial. 

There are no guarantees.  It's the Mideast, integrity is not highly prized, and the sands can shift.  The Russian presence, which did not exist when Field Marshal Obama came to office, can disrupt everything.  So can the power of Iran, which was also much smaller when Obama took the oath. 

Great president, that Obama. 

January 6, 2018       Permalink

THE BOOK – AT 12:53 P.M. ET: "The book," the one everyone is talking about, is already destroying itself.  A number of people are coming forward to point out mistakes.  Some are saying they weren't where the author, Michael Wolff, says they were.  Others are rebelling about Wolff's claim that his book will wreck Trump's presidency.  I sense that a number of decent journalists don't want to be associated with the book.

Among the more asinine assertions by Wolff is that Mr. Trump is stupid, has trouble reading, and may even have a reading deficiency.  We point out that the president is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  He also makes speeches during which he uses...a teleprompter.  You have to read from a teleprompter, the last time I looked.

It is reported that the president has a short attention span.  No, he probably processes information quickly and dismisses the padding in a briefing or paper, and there is plenty of padding in Washington.  When I was in the CIA, an analyst told me that, when a new country was formed in Africa, President Eisenhower asked that he be provided with a map, with a red arrow pointing at that country.  The analyst giggled, as if this showed that Mr. Eisenhower was stupid.  My own private reaction was that, if I were president, that's exactly what I'd want done.  Presidents are busy. 

President Reagan admitted that he fell asleep at Cabinet meetings.  He explained that he knew he wasn't missing anything.

Other critics of the book are asking why, if Mr. Trump is so mentally challenged, it never seems to show in public.  I guess he has a secret brain working for him, just as Dick Cheney was said to be George W. Bush's brain by people, the same kind who ridicule Trump, who charged that Bush wasn't bright enough to be president.

Trump responded to the personal criticisms in the book with a Twitter storm this morning, and I wish he hadn't.  He hurts himself when he takes the bait and descends to the level of a gossip factory.  Let others do the defending.  The president should be above it.

There's an old line in politics:  When your opponent is committing suicide, don't get in the way.  The author of this new book is appearing on television making grandiose claims and appearing the ambitious fool.  Don't get in his way.

One thing that could be useful is to counter Wolff's claim that everyone around Trump – 100 percent, he emphasizes – believes he is unfit for office.  I suggest circulating among those closest to Mr. Trump a letter firmly rejecting the charge, and having them sign it.  A very simple step, but one that would place the author in the position of a liar.

January 6,  2018     Permalink

JANUARY 5,  2018

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

I LOVE IT – FROM DAILY CALLER:    One of Hillary Clinton’s longest-serving, most-trusted political advisers is deeply worried that young voters will see more money in their bank accounts after the GOP tax cuts and therefore consider voting Republican.  Philippe Reines served as a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton for more than a decade in multiple roles in both her Senate and state department offices. He also advised Clinton in the lead up to her presidential campaign. Reines sat down with Washington interns to give his assessment of the political landscape after the 2016 election. Reines was asked by a young woman about the future of young voters in politics. The Clinton advisor first began by saying he didn’t know “how millennials think” and that it is “unclear what will get them going.”  Reines speculated that someone like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would be good at tapping youth enthusiasm but went on to say he is fearful that Trump and GOP policies will begin to animate millennials, specifically when they see their taxes go down.   From his mouth to you know who's ears.

THE DISGRACE – FROM FOX:   One of the leading figures in the Democratic Party is taking heat on social media for proudly touting the violent far-left group, Antifa.   Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who serves as DNC deputy chair, tweeted a picture to promote a book called "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook."  The sentiment is not shared by other Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who condemned violent elements within Antifa, saying violent protesters should be arrested.  "You’re not talking about the far left of the Democratic Party — they’re not even Democrats," Pelosi told the Denver Post editorial board. "A lot of them are socialists or anarchists or whatever."  Ellison, who lost a close race last year to Tom Perez for leadership of the DNC, was skewered on Twitter for posting the photo.   On Fox Business Network, Democrat and author Doug Schoen said he wishes Ellison would "go away," but fears Ellison will do the opposite and run for Al Franken's Senate seat in Minnesota.   "He stands for everything I do not believe and I think is wrong about the Democratic Party," said Schoen.  Ellison, once an activist with the bigoted Nation of Islam, is a disgrace to the Democrats and should never have been made deputy chair.  But the party apparatus is today controlled by reckless people who have no problem with leftist fringe elements, including, apparently, violent ones. 

BUT IS HIS WARRANTY VALID? – FROM THE MIAMI HERALD:  Whoever set off the fireworks in Sawgrass Mills Sunday afternoon, sending people hiding in stock rooms and racing from the mall, planned more than malevolent fun, Sunrise police say.  They planned (successfully) to steal an $11,400 Rolex.
Surveillance video released by Sunrise police shows a man trying on the Rolex at the Sawgrass Mills Zales store on New Year’s Eve. When the fireworks go off outside the store in the mall, Zales workers scramble for cover deeper in the store while the “shopper” scrams from the store with the Rolex still on his wrist.  The in-store suspect is described as a white Hispanic male. The Rolex is described as model No. 1626 with a blue face. Sunrise police don’t have a description for the fireworks popper.  I would have chosen the silver face, but you can't have everything.  They'll probably nail this guy if he tries to sell the watch or have it serviced.  It has a serial number.

January 5,  2018     Permalink

A WOLFF IN WOLF'S CLOTHING – AT 12:40 P.M. ET:   It's all the rage, isn't it?  You can't turn on a "news" program without hearing a breathless report about the new Trump book, "Fire and Fury - Inside the Trump White House," by presumed journalist Michael Wolff.

Yawn.

I have no idea how accurate the yarns are.  I assume some of them are pretty close to the truth.  But the book is so relentlessly negative and hostile, it probably will destroy itself.

And we've been here so often.  Lincoln's first commanding general, called the president a "baboon."  The British ambassador called Theodore Roosevelt "a little boy."  Franklin D. Roosevelt was widely called "featherduster" because he was said to be an intellectual lightweight.  He was also called chronically dishonest.  Truman was the "little man from Missouri," who used obscenities around the White House.

Dwight Eisenhower, who came to the White House with probably the best background of any American president, was regularly denounced as a dullard, anti-intellectual, and almost illiterate. 

Barry Goldwater, the GOP presidential candidate in 1964, was called mentally unbalanced by a group of psychiatrists, who were later reprimanded by their professional association for their irresponsibility.

Ronald Reagan was called an "amiable dunce."  The man who ended the Cold War on our terms was also described, upon taking office, as a reckless militarist who would cause World War III.

George W. Bush was called most of the things that Trump is being called – stupid, privileged, shallow, unprepared, uncultured, and an illegitimate president. 

So, don't let the new book shake you.  Judge Trump by his accomplishments.  He is far from a perfect man, but if personal perfection were the standard, Winston Churchill would never have been prime minister of Great Britain.

January 5, 2018       Permalink

THE FUTURE OF IRAN – AT 11:38 A.M. ET:  It does appear that the protests are being suppressed by the gangster regime that runs Iran.  But what of the future?  From Fox: 

The deadly protests gripping Iran may not be the final battle between the Islamic republic's hard-line government and its fed-up populace, but it shows the mullahs are running out of time, according to an expert who helps advise Congress.

Tehran has moved swiftly against the most serious protests since 2009's "Green Movement," cutting off social media and mobilizing police and military forces to deal with spreading demonstrations.

But the demographics of the protests and the heavy-handed approach to them bode poorly for the brutal regime, according to Kenneth Katzman, a senior analyst of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Persian Gulf Affairs at the Congressional Research Service.

"[The demostrations have] morphed into basically a youth protest against the system writ large, and it all goes back to the clerics' monopoly on power," said Katzman, whose group provides research and analysis to Congress.

So far, at least 21 people have been killed and more than 450 arrested in widespread demonstrations.
Katzman, who recently published a study of the impact of sanctions relief on Iran's economy, acknowledged he was caught off-guard by the protests, which came at a time when the country's economy was improving in variety of ways.

COMMENT:   President Trump did the right thing by openly supporting the protesters, unlike our European "allies," who fudged every comment they made, the better to get more business contracts with Iran.  There is, I believe, a growing gulf between the U.S. and Western Europe.  Western Europe is decadent, cannot reproduce its population, and increasingly influenced by Muslim immigrants from the Mideast.  It is a continent of the past, and there are far more important countries and continents emerging.  Europe is good for museums and food.

January 5, 2018       Permalink

EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT, DEMOCRATS – AT 11:09 A.M. ET:  Now wait.  Wasn't it the Democratic Party that was the "party of the people"?  Yeah, I remember that, sometime back in the 1930s.  Uh, I get the feeling that it's a little different today.  The Dems, led by Barack Hussein Obama Jr, don't even like the people, at least those without Ivy League educations.

The Trump administration, whether we always love the president or not, is producing results the Dems can only dream of, if they dream at all.  From the Washington Examiner: 

The number of companies offering employee bonuses, pay hikes, and increases in benefits in reaction to President Trump’s December tax reform victory is now over 100, with thousands of workers impacted and charities too.

Less than a day after Americans for Tax Reform put out an initial list of 40, it jumped to 52 as more company plans poured in.

And by the end of today, ATR’s John Kartch told Secrets that the list will hit over 100. "Small businesses from across the country are sending me news of their tax-cut bonuses, wage hikes, and charitable donations. Many of these were only announced internally. There is a broad and deep tsunami building," added Kartch, ATR's vice president of communications.

Kartch is asking that firms who have decided to spread the anticipated wealth let him know. “Please help ATR expand this list – if you know of any companies missing below, please send to jkartch@atr.org),” he put in his blog post.

Grover Norquist, ATR's president, said the bonuses are nullifying Democratic attacks on the GOP tax package. He told Secrets, "Every announcement of another company raising wages, hiring, paying bonuses, investing in America is another nail in the coffin of the Democrat attacks on the Republican tax cut. This drip, drip, drip is added to the daily reports on stock market gains, the bigger checks in pay envelopes and the jump in your 401K and IRA."

COMMENT:  Read the whole story, for more details.  All good.

January 5,  2018     Permalink