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JANUARY 23,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:01 P.M. ET:

NFL APPEASEMENT CONTINUES – FROM THE HILL:  NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been named a finalist for an award honoring players for their community service work.  Kaepernick and four other players were announced as finalists for the NFL Players Association’s (NFLPA) Byron “Whizzer” White Community MVP award, according to NBC Sports.  The free agent quarterback pledged $1 million to various charitable organizations during the 2016 season. He won the NFLPA’s “Community MVP” award during Week 1 of the 2017 season after donating $100,000 to four charities and holding a back-to-school backpack giveaway in New York City.   He also originated the practice of "taking a knee" during the national anthem.  The practice has resulted in a decline of respect for the NFL, and much lower television ratings. 

FRENCH GUY TO VISIT – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:   President Donald Trump plans to use the annual billionaires gathering at Davos to extend special hospitality to French President Emmanuel Macron by inviting him to a state visit to the U.S.  Trump has hosted numerous foreign leaders but has yet to host an official state visit.  He expressed deep appreciation for the red carpet treatment Macron showed him on a visit to France on a visit pegged to Bastille Day. They viewed the Bastille Day parade together and dined with their spouses, First Lady Melania Trump and French First Lady Brigitte Macron, in the Eiffel Tower. The White House would not officially confirm reports about the planned invitation.   'We don't have an announcement to make at this time,' an official told CNN.  However, as France 24 noted, Trump didn't get the honor of a state dinner at Elysee Palace.   It's interesting that Britain will not receive the first state dinner, something of a snub.  Trump has an awkward relationship with the current British government, even though it is conservative.

THE NEWEST VERSION – FROM FOX:  Dire warnings of underwater cities and drowning polar bears are less likely to pan out than once thought.  That’s an upshot of a new study in the journal Nature by top climate scientists, including a lead author of U.N. climate estimates.  The study’s conclusion says it is “renewing hope that we may yet be able to avoid global warming exceeding [3.6 °F].”  For the last 25 years, the UN has had the same prediction of the impact of carbon dioxide: That will warm the Earth by between 2.7 – 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit if emissions continue at the current rate and levels end up at double the pre-industrial level.  But the latest study uses a new method to determine that the actual likely range of warming would be narrower: between 4 – 6.1°F. The study finds just a 1% chance of an increase over 8.1°F degrees.
Past models have over-predicted warming. A 2013 study in the journal Nature Climate Change found that out of 117 climate predictions made in the 1990's, three were roughly accurate and 114 overestimated warming.  Maybe we're finally getting to the truth.  I wonder if the media will report it.

January 23, 2018       Permalink

COMMON SENSE FROM HARVARD – AT 12:50 P.M. ET:   We sometimes like to think of Harvard as a very liberal university, floating in the clouds.  In fact, there has been some remarkable common sense coming out of the Harvard Law School on the subject of sexual harassment, and much of it is coming from Harvard women.  From Daily Caller: 

Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Bartholet argues that the #MeToo movement, made popular on social media after numerous high-profile media men were exposed as sexual predators, ignores the “principles of basic fairness” because it presumes guilt.

The professor, who teaches civil liberties and family law, says that despite #MeToo’s ability to bring predators to light, due process may be in danger of being thrown out.

In the rush to discard the possibility of innocence, men accused of sexual misconduct now face an immediate guilty sentence in the court of public opinion.

Writing for the Harvard Crimson, Bartholet says that due to the current social climate, “men and women are put at risk for personal conduct that may be essential if they are to have the chance to develop future relationships.”

“In the recent rush to judgment, principles of basic fairness, differences between proven and merely alleged instances of misconduct, and important distinctions between different kinds of sexually charged conduct have too often been ignored,” Bartholet says, as first reported by Campus Reform.

“Some argue that women who speak out should simply always be believed,” says the professor. “Others argue that if some innocent men must be sacrificed to the cause of larger justice, so be it. I find this deeply troubling.”

Bartholet says that “efforts must be made to investigate what actually happened and how the different parties understood the events.”

COMMENT:  Good, wise words, far wiser than the 10-minute "feminists" who pop up whenever women's issues are in the news.  Fighting sexual violence against women, and battling true sexual harassment, can be done thoughtfully and effectively, without tearing the Constitution to shreds. 

Professor Bartholet does a service, as do other prominent women who've begun to caution against excess.  Only women can stop the new McCarthyism on the left, which can ultimately do enormous damage to the legitimate pursuit of women's rights.

January 23, 2018       Permalink

VERY, VERY STRANGE – AT 11:48 A.M. ET:   Have you noticed that the federal government seems to lose e-mails?  How many e-mails have you lost?  Maybe the feds need someone from the Apple Store to help sort things.  From The Hill: 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday announced the Justice Department will investigate missing text messages sent between two FBI agents critical of President Trump, joining the chorus of Republican lawmakers who are eager to recover the exchange.

GOP officials have seized on the messages as evidence of FBI bias against Trump in the probes into Russian election meddling and Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of State.

“We will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to be produced and will use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source," Sessions said in a statement.

"I have spoken to the Inspector General and a review is already underway to ascertain what occurred and to determine if these records can be recovered in any other way. If any wrongdoing were to be found to have caused this gap, appropriate legal disciplinary action measures will be taken," he continued.

COMMENT:  Well, Jeff sounds tough for a change.  This year could provide many headlines in the Washington probes, and they probably won't be headlines the Democrats wished for.

January 23, 2018       Permalink

YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP – AT 10:44 A.M. ET:  There are some stories you read twice to be sure you actually got them right.   From Dailywire: 

Say what you want about President Trump, but at least he knows his Twitter password.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, now says he couldn't inform state residents that a warning of an imminent missile attack was a false alarm because he forgot his Twitter password. The frightening admission comes 10 days after Hawaiians were throw into a panic for nearly 40 minutes over the warning.

An employee accidentally triggered the missile defense warning on January 13 by pushing the wrong button -- twice. He sent a message to all mobile phones warning them of an imminent ballistic missile attack. Some residents placed their children in sewer drains in an effort to survive the blast.

"The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency issued the false alarm at 8:07 a.m., and Ige was told the missile alert was a false alarm two minutes after the alert was sent to cell phones across the state," the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported. "However, Ige’s office did not get out a cancellation message until 17 minutes after the alert."

Ige was asked about that delay when he met with reporters after his State of the State address today, and he said that “I was in the process of making calls to the leadership team both in Hawaii Emergency Management as well as others.”

Ige added that “I have to confess that I don’t know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that’s one of the changes that I’ve made. I’ve been putting that on my phone so that we can access the social media directly.”

COMMENT:  A man like this is in charge of a state, with critical emergency services under his command.  But are there calls for his resignation?  Of course not. 

January 23,  2018     Permalink

JANUARY 22,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:46 P.M. ET: 

A COMPLETE OUTRAGE – FROM ARMY TIMES:   WASHINGTON — AMVETS officials are decrying “corporate censorship” from the National Football League for their decision not to run an ad in their Super Bowl program which responds to league players’ decision to kneel for the national anthem in protest of national equality issues.  The ad, which would have cost the veterans organization $30,000, features the tag “#PleaseStand” with a picture of service members saluting the American flag and information on how to donate to the congressionally-chartered organization.  Group leaders said NFL officials refused to include the ad in their Super Bowl publication, but did not issue a reason why. In a statement, AMVETS National Commander Marion Polk said the issue is one of fairness and respect.   The NFL has truly become an embarrassment.  Who are they afraid of?  The fringe left?  MSNBC?  Bernie Sanders?  NFL ratings are plunging, and the NFL is showing disrespect for veterans.  Smart.  Real smart.

CUISINE WARNING – FROM FOX:  A Utah State University student was rushed to a hospital Saturday after ingesting a Tide Pod, the latest incident from the social media craze that's motivated teens to dare each other to eat the miniature, neon, detergent-filled pods.  Campus police initially called the incident a "Tide Pod overdose," but Eric Warren, director of media relations at USU, told FOX 13 Salt Lake City the female student ingested a Tide Pod.  Warren said it was unclear what motivated the student to ingest the Tide Pod while in on-campus housing, but added, "For students and members of our university who are feeling overwhelmed, we have services available. There are people here to talk to you."  The female student was taken to a local hospital, but details about her condition were not immediately available.  I mean, who would want to eat Tide?  And how did this girl get admitted to a functioning college?

USEFUL INFORMATION – FROM DAILY MAIL:  If you're wondering what you can possibly do for partners when they're in excruciating pain, just holding their hand could be enough, new research shows.
The familiar urge to reach for a hand when we're hurting, or desire to be held when we're sick, now has a biological explanation.  A Colorado University, Boulder study found that the mere touch of a partner can communicate empathy, and reduce the sensation of pain.   Women reported a milder pain experience from heat experiments when their male partners were in the room and holding their hands.  Maybe now we know why politicians like to shake hands.  They think they're reducing our pain, or feeling our pain, as Bill Clinton used to put it. 

January 22, 2018       Permalink  

BULLETIN:  SHUTDOWN APPARENTLY TO END – AT 12:55 P.M.   From Fox: 

The Senate on Monday voted 81-18 to break a Democratic filibuster on a government spending bill, clearing the way for Congress to approve the stopgap measure and end the three-day government shutdown. 

The Senate still has to vote on the bill itself, which the House would have to consider next. But the show of support early Monday afternoon virtually guarantees it will pass. The measure would fund the government through Feb. 8. 

Democrats effectively backed off their opposition, after being given assurances from majority Republicans. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced on the floor ahead of the procedural vote that they’d reached an agreement. He said it comes with a commitment to negotiate on immigration, and immediately consider such legislation if there’s no agreement by Feb. 8.

The Trump White House and Capitol Hill Republicans had cranked up the pressure earlier Monday on Democrats to abandon their immediate demands for immigration measures and vote in support of the temporary spending bill.

“They shut down the government,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning. “The pressure is on them.”

COMMENT:  We trust that the Dems will not pull anything like a shutdown again.  These things are not popular with normal people. 

Remember, this isn't over.  If the measure goes through both houses, as expected, it only funds the government through February 8th.  We could repeat this cliffhanger stuff unless wise heads prevail.

January 22, 2018       Permalink

DEMS RETHINKING SHUTDOWN? – AT 11:45 A.M. ET:  The great political reporter, John Fund, says that some Democrats are rethinking the strategy behind shutting down the government.  Yes, there are Democrats whose minds are not completely cooked.  From NRO:

No one knows when the government shutdown will be ended, but it’s increasingly likely that Democrats will rue the day they launched it. “I’m concerned that we don’t have an exit strategy,” one Democratic aide for a liberal senator told NBC News on Sunday. He went on to say: “This is a question of who’s going to flinch first.”

One reason Democrats are nervous is that the longer the shutdown goes on, the longer voters will start to realize the Democrats are fighting not so much for the Dreamers — people brought to this country as children by adults who entered illegally — but for the concepts of “chain migration” and the “diversity lottery,” which have done so much to warp our immigration policy and make it a shambles.

Even staunch pro-immigration voices increasingly recognize that emphasizing family reunification through chain migration shouldn’t be the heart of our immigration policy. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a prominent pro-immigrant voice for decades, and his co-author Clint Bolick wrote back in 2013:

Since the 1960s, the vast majority of legal immigrants have come pursuant to a very broad definition of “family reunification” — which includes not only spouses and minor children but parents and siblings. Family preferences account for two-thirds of all legal immigrants.

It’s because Democrats fear that bringing these facts to light in a debate over Dreamers that they are trying to run away from the term “chain migration.” Media Matters, the pro–Hillary Clinton propaganda group, derides the term as “a misleading nativist buzzword.”

COMMENT:  Add to that some new polling by CNN showing that the "generic" gap between Democrats and Republicans regarding the 2018 mid-term elections has narrowed considerably.  Only a month ago, the Dems were up by double digits.  Now they're in the mid single digits.  Some Dems are starting to realize that the 2018 races won't be the cakewalk they'd thought.

The Democrats have always underestimated Donald Trump and his ability to bring people behind him.  May they make the same mistake again.

January 22, 2018       Permalink

VOTING SOON ON SHUTDOWN – AT 11:26 A.M. ET:  The Senate will vote at noon on a bill to end the government shutdown.  From CNN: 

Washington (CNN) Key senators are meeting ahead of a high-stakes vote at noon Monday on a bill to reopen the government and fund it for three weeks, though it remains unclear if this plan will win over enough Democrats to pass.

The vote comes several hours after the workday for hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal employees was supposed to have begun, and comes three days after the government officially shut down Friday at midnight. Many of the shutdown's full effects were less visible during the weekend, when much of the federal workforce would typically be off anyway.

"I don't think this is the right way to get policy outcomes is to shut the government down. When we tried it, it didn't work well for us," GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters, appearing alongside GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Jeff Flake of Arizona. "Here's what I predict. Once we start talking about immigration and voting on immigration, we'll find 60 votes to make sure these DACA recipients' lives are not ruined by March 5."

The Senate vote was moved from 1 a.m. ET Monday to noon after it became clear Democrats would block the spending bill over disagreements on a variety of issues, most notably what do about young people affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said he thought Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York agreed to push back the vote to give his caucus "a chance to chew" on a GOP proposal to break the impasse.

COMMENT:  We are awaiting the vote.  Maybe the Dems will come to their senses.  But history doesn't guarantee that.

January 22,  2018     Permalink