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JULY 4,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

DO THEY HAVE TO AUTOMATE EVERYTHING? – FROM CNBC:  Grilling burgers may be fun on the Fourth of July, but less so if hot grease is your daily grind.  Enter Miso Robotics. The southern California start-up has built a robotic "kitchen assistant" called Flippy to do the hot, greasy and repetitive work of a fry cook. Flippy employs machine learning and computer vision to identify patties on a grill, track them as they cook, flip and then place them on a bun when they're done.  Miso is part of a budding kitchen automation industry. Its peers include Zume Pizza, Cafe X, Makr Shakr, Frobot and Sally, which are developing robots to help commercial kitchens churn out pizzas, lattes, cocktails, frozen yogurt, and salads.  No more mama's home cooking.  Now we'll have snacks by Miso Robotics or burgers by Makr Shakr.  How romantic.  No more diner scenes in movies either.

GOOD DEAL – FROM CNN MONEY:  Drivers are enjoying the cheapest Fourth of July gasoline in more than a decade. Enjoy it while it lasts: Experts say prices will start inching higher soon.  The average price nationwide for a gallon of regular is $2.23, down 15 cents from a month ago, according to AAA.  And really cheap gas is even more common than suggested by that average: About 25% of gas stations nationwide are selling gas for $2 a gallon or less.  The last time gas was this cheap heading into Independence Day was 2005.  But wholesale gasoline prices have already started to climb up, and that will probably translate into modestly higher prices at the pump in coming days, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks gas prices for AAA.  Of course, if you were a true social justice warrior, you wouldn't use a car at all, poisoning the air, destroying the Earth and the Solar System.  You'd walk, or take a collective rode in the new Goremobile.  But you won't do that, would you?

AND NOW THE ACTUAL NEWS – FROM DAILY MAIL:  Despite claims by furious Trump opponents that they would leave the country if he won the presidency, Canada hasn't proved as many citizenship applications as might be expected.  The country's did receive an uptick of 66 per cent in applications from January-April 2017, but that only meant an average of 400 people per month rather than the previous year's 264.  And those figures are still down from highs of 2011 - the middle of the Obama administration - when 564 Americans a month were trying to become Canadian, the National Post reported.   The left is wonderful at advertising dramatic pledges to leave the United States if so-and-so is elected.  The pledges never seem to pan out.  Even leftists like the privileges of American citizenship.

July 4, 2017       Permalink

AN OVERALL VOTE OF NO-CONFIDENCE – AT 1:44 P.M. ET:   Our institutions are failing to thrill the American people with their abilities.  From the fine reporter, David Martosko, at the Daily Mail: 

The Trump administration is suffering from a trust deficit as the president battles with federal lawmakers and political journalists.

But a new poll that identified the problem found Americans trust Congress and the news media even less.

A survey conducted by Marist College for National Public Radio and the PBS 'NewsHour' program found just 37 per cent of adults in the U.S. trust the Trump administration, compared with 61 per cent who don't.

More than four in 10 said they don't trust the administration 'at all.'

Congress is distrusted by 68 per cent of Americans and trusted by just 29 per cent.

The media tied Congress witl 68 per cent distrust, but had far more in the 'not at all' column.

Thirty per cent of adults said they trust the media either 'a good amount' or 'a great deal.'

The two American institutions that placed highest were intelligence agencies and the courts.

Sixty per cent of adults said they trust the intelligence community, compared with 37 per cent who don't.

Those numbers were the same for the courts. They're also an almost perfect mirror of Trump's.

COMMENT:   Polls are snapshots in time, but they give us a general view of what people are thinking.  We have a trust deficit, and it will be difficult to repair it in today's contentious atmosphere.  To a degree, distrust in institutions can be positive, driving those institutions to do better.  But I wouldn't want the nation to have to go to war under current conditions of cynicism.

July 4, 2017       Permalink

CNN SINKING – AT 12:52 P.M. ET:   After a brief spurt of popularity, linked to its scandal-mongering "coverage" of the Trump administration, CNN is sinking in the ratings again.  If the network got new leadership, and returned to basic journalism, it would start to recover.  From Gateway Pundit: 

CNN incurred a significant decrease in TV viewers in June as the month progressed thanks in large part to President Trump pointing out their media bias and false reporting,

For the month of May, CNN averaged 821,000 viewers per hour throughout the entire day and 1.12 million total viewers during the prime time hours.  Comparably, FOX News averaged 1.42 million viewers per hour throughout the entire day and 2.24 million viewers during prime time, or twice as many viewers during prime time hours as CNN.

By the end of June, due to CNN being caught in a number of ‘fake news’ stories, its numbers dropped significantly.

On Wednesday June 28th CNN’s numbers dropped to only 666,000 TV viewers throughout the day and only 882,000 viewers during primetime.  These pathetic numbers were roughly 80% of May’s monthly average for total day TV viewers and prime time viewers or 20% down.

FOX News on the other hand, had TV viewership that was up from May with 1.705 million total viewers daily per hour average and 2.647 viewers during prime time for an increase of roughly 20%.

COMMENT:  There are some good people at CNN, but they're not being permitted to act as real journalists.  The network has become anti-Trump all-the-time, and it's clear that many viewers are fed up. 

Their leader, Jeff Zucker, almost destroyed NBC.  Practice makes perfect.

July 4, 2017       Permalink

THE NORTH KOREAN LAUNCH – AT 12:31 P.M. ET:  The latest North Korean launch reminds us, on our Independence Day, that our independence and freedom are under constant threat.  From Fox: 

The ballistic missile launched by North Korea on Tuesday flew longer than any missile test conducted by the rogue regime to date, U.S. Pacific Command said -- meaning Kim Jong Un's dictatorship may now possess the ability to strike Alaska.

North Korea launched a missile on Mother's Day that flew for 30 minutes and reached an altitude 1,000 miles higher than the international space station. But Tuesday's missile flew for 37 minutes and reached a height of 1,500 miles, leading missile experts to conclude it could have reached a target 4,000 miles away, putting Alaska in its cross-hairs.

"The threat is much more immediate now," National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters prior to the launch. "So it's clear we can't repeat the same failed approach of the past."

COMMENT:  No we can't.  Last week the U.S. hinted at expanded military options in dealing with North Korea.  The president's first response to this new launch was to say that he can't believe South Korea and Japan would put up with this much longer.  And he put additional heat on China to pressure North Korea to stop these tests.

Nothing so far has worked.  I would not be shocked to see the U.S. Navy shoot down the next missile to be test-launched from North Korea.  That would provoke a serious confrontation with the North, but how can that possibly be avoided?

Once again we bear the brunt of past appeasement, by both Democratic and Republican administrations, of North Korea's frightening regime.

July 4,  2017     Permalink

JULY 3,  2017

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

JUSTICE KENNEDY HINTS AT RETIREMENT – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy may retire next year, giving the Trump administration the opportunity to fill the vacancy and move the court to the right for years to come.  Kennedy, who turns 81 on July 23, has told people who are applying to be his law clerks for the court’s term beginning in October 2018 that he is considering retirement, NPR reported.  The first response of liberals to this possibility will probably be to increase their attempts to get Trump removed from office, to prevent him from nominating another justice. 

HARVARD HONORS SCALIA – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:   Harvard Law School has announced the establishment of the Antonin Scalia Professorship of Law in honor of the late US Supreme Court justice.  The professorship is endowed by the Considine Family Foundation, the benefactors both Harvard graduates (Terry from the Law School in 1968, and Betsy from the Business School in 1977).  “Justice Scalia had a singular impact on statutory analysis and legal thought. He also had a great love of learning, so it is especially meaningful that he will be honored with a professorship that will provide enduring support for teaching and scholarship at the Law School and beyond,” said Martha Minow, dean of the Law School.  You may be sure that the party liners at Harvard will work to have a leftist named to the professorship.  It's a game played all the time.

ANYONE IN FAVOR OF THIS? – FROM THE INDEPENDENT:  Within three decades people will no longer be having sex to procreate, a professor from Stanford University has said.   Hank Greely, the director of Stanford’s Law School’s Center for Law and the Biosciences, believes the reproductive process will begin with parents choosing from a range of embryos created in a lab with their DNA.  Although this can already take place, Mr Greely believes it will become far cheaper to do so and couples will opt for this method to prevent diseases.   And what if people prefer the more traditional approach, which has several billion years of tradition behind it?  Will they be called bigots?  Will their medical plans cover the quaint idea of childbirth?  Will potential parents be fined for making the wrong choice?  Maybe we'd better talk this out.

July 3, 2017       Permalink

LEARNING THE HARD WAY – AT 2:34 P.M. ET:   Each party, over the years, has had its extremist elements.  One thing you've got to learn about extremism – it will consume a party unless stopped early.  Another thing you learn is that extremists, especially on the left, have no loyalty.  If you don't go along with them a hundred percent, they will destroy you, no matter what you've done for them in the past. 

California Democrats are learning these lessons.  From Fox:    

California Democratic lawmakers are facing a brutal backlash from union activists and others on the left after shelving a universal health care bill – a debate that has grown so intense that lawmakers say they’ve faced death threats and other violent rhetoric.

Assembly Democrats publicly decried the “bullying tactics” in a written statement over the weekend, maintaining that lawmakers are committed to improving health care but need to have an “open discourse.”

“In recent days, we have become alarmed and disheartened by bullying tactics, threats of violence, and death threats by a few who disagree with the decision of Speaker Anthony Rendon to postpone the advancement of SB 562,” they said, referring to the scrapped single-payer health care bill. “While it is appropriate for persons of varying views to express concern, disapproval or disfavor about the delay, it is never acceptable to engage in those tactics.” 

COMMENT:   Never acceptable?  It happens on California college campuses far too often.  Maybe the liberals will learn from this experience that the leftist fringe is simply using them, as it has used civil rights, feminism, and the LGBTQ movement to advance its own narrow, Marxist agenda.  But, sad to say, liberals are very slow to learn.  And they become frightened at the very people they've empowered.

July 3, 2017       Permalink

HANSON ON THE TWEET REVOLUTION – QUOTES OF THE DAY – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  Victor Davis Hanson has  written the best piece on the crisis of the tweet.  Today's journalists probably consider it the greatest, most stupendous crisis in human history.  Davis doesn't think so, and gives us real gems in this piece.  From American Greatness: 

Finally, no one has calibrated quite the nation’s deep antipathy toward the coastal media-university-political-cultural nexus, most specifically its utter hypocrisy. Half the country sees not so much Democrats or progressives, but rather a bankrupt class whose venom for others is used to excuse their own exemptions from the ramifications of their own ideology.

And...

Trump in this context is seen by his supporters as a fighter in a way no prior conservative president or presidential candidate since Reagan has been. The conservative base remembers the dark years of 2005-6 when the media and progressive activists smeared Bush daily—without riposte.

And...

First, half the country despises the mainstream media and sees it as arrogant, corrupt, hypocritical, and in need of comeuppance. Trump is not running against a centrist populist Democrat like John Kennedy or Harry Truman, but a crude Resistance of foul mouths like Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), unhinged celebrities like Maher and Colbert, street theater, thuggery on campuses, and not very bright media talking heads imploding as they try to top their rivals’ hatred for Trump and what he represents.

And...

CNN is now no longer a news organization, but has been reduced to caricature by Trump hatred. It has been exposed not just as unprofessional and dishonest (firing reporters for fake news reports; apologizing and retracting constant errors of content; producers caught on tape denigrating voters and bragging of their hyper-partisanship and anti-Trumpism), but also has run the gamut from scatology (Anderson Cooper and Reza Aslan) to violence porn (Kathy Griffin, or the jokes about Trump’s plane crashing) to simple fraud (last year’s Donna Brazile revelations).

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  It's impossible to summarize, but it's filled with good stuff like that.  Hanson concludes:  "I would urge the president to stop tweeting about nothings and to keep his powder dry for bigger game to come than Joe and Mika. But considering that I have been urging just such pruning of tweets as a matter of strategy for Trump for a long time and that I have been mostly wrong about the downsides of his twitter invective for just as long, perhaps the president knows something I don’t."

July 3, 2017       Permalink

STOP ALREADY! – AT 11:41 A.M. ET:  It's a holiday weekend.  Things are slow.  So all the attention is on the tweet issue.  There is rage, there is defiance, there is deep upset...all of it in the media...over President Trump's anti-media tweeting.  Has he gone too far?  Is he unpresidential?  Is the Constitution at risk?  Is the world at risk?

Gee, the last time I heard those questions was at Watergate.  We survived. 

While the agony of the media is part of political theater, and thin-skinned journalists are part of our culture, maybe it is time for the president to change the subject, stop his baiting of the press, and concentrate, in his tweets, on the issues before him.  This is one of the most active, and potentially effective, presidents I've seen, but his tweets are distracting attention from his accomplishments and agenda.  While much of what he says in his messages is true, the controversy is diminishing him and giving the press an excuse to cover itself and its hurts, rather than little issues of war, peace, and governing.

Mr. Trump might argue that George W. Bush tried to be a gentleman with the press, and look what it got him.  It got him the same kind of contempt from the media being heaped on Trump.  No, the press can probably not be reformed.  The current generation of journalists is beyond redemption.  But the president has the bully pulpit, and he should use it more to advance his presidency, not simply settle scores. 

The president goes to Europe this week, his second foreign trip.  He will be in eastern Europe, where he'll undoubtedly get a much better reception than in western Europe, where the fashionable left is still in fashion.  He should note that there are statues to Ronald Reagan in eastern Europe, but, to the best of my knowledge, none in the west. 

So, Mr. President, please cool it for a time.  You're taking on the right issues.  Let us hear about that.

July 3,  2017     Permalink