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JULY 6,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:05 P.M. ET:

CNN DOING A TITANIC – FROM THE FEDERALIST:  Last week, more Americans tuned in to watch re-runs of “Yogi Bear,” “Full House,” and “Friends” on Nick At Nite than to watch Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon’s shows on CNN.  According to cable ratings from the week of June 26-July 2, CNN’s viewership of its primetime shows was ranked significantly lower than its competitors like Fox News and MSNBC, which place first and second respectively. Clocking in at No. 10 on the list, CNN fell behind HGTV, Nick At Nite, History Channel, and ESPN — the sports network that’s been hemorrhaging viewers for months.  It's Trump's fault!  It's Trump's fault.  The First Amendment is in danger!

OBAMA'S MILITARY – FROM THE NEW MANUAL – FROM THE FEDERALIST:  The slide tells soldiers to “understand that you may encounter individuals in barracks, bathrooms, or shower facilities with physical characteristics of the opposite sex despite having the same gender marker in DEERS.” The next bullet point adds, “all Soldiers should be respectful of the privacy and modesty concerns of others. However, transgender Soldiers are not required or expected to modify or adjust their behavior based on the fact that they do not ‘match’ other Soldiers.” This is a first. The military is normally in the business of telling soldiers to “modify or adjust their behavior” all the time.  Consider what these policies mean in real life: Most Army showers look like a prison cell with several showerheads on the wall. Anyone who has dealt with the practical challenges of funneling 30 people through them in ten minutes understands that “privacy” will be incompatible with reality. Female soldiers who feel uncomfortable sharing facilities with individuals who still have “physical characteristics of the opposite sex” will just have to put up with it.  Those are the rules of Obama's military.  I guess women with traditional sensibilities just aren't wanted.

JOB CREATION JUNE – FROM CNBC:  Job creation in the private sector tailed off significantly in June in another sign that the economy is getting closer to full employment, according to a report Thursday from ADP and Moody's Analytics.  Companies added 158,000 positions for the month, a number that economists who released the report said was still strong but stood well below the robust 230,000 number the report showed in May. The reading also was considerably below the 185,000 gain that economists surveyed by Reuters expected, and was revised lower from the initial 253,000 count.  "The job market continues to power forward," Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi said in a statement. "At this pace, which is double the rate of labor force growth, the tight labor market will continue getting tighter."  It may well be that we are approaching "full" employment, as economists see it.  The decline is thus not necessarily bad news.  The hiring market has been robust.

July 6, 2017       Permalink

OH, I'M SO UPSET - MY PILLS, GET ME MY PILLS – AT 9:03 A.M. ET:  Jeff Zucker, who runs CNN, feels that President Trump is treating him unfairly.  There is pain.  There is anguish.  There are falsely heroic words.  That cruel president!  From The Hill: 

CNN President Jeff Zucker on Wednesday said President Trump is trying to bully the news network, but added that he won't let Trump "intimidate" his employees.

“My job is to remind everyone that they need to stay focused doing their job,” Zucker told The New York Times Wednesday. “He’s trying to bully us, and we’re not going to let him intimidate us. You can’t lose your confidence and let that change the way you conduct yourselves.”

That is complete garbage.  Zucker doesn't understand what CNN's job is – to report the news without fear or favor.  He thinks it's job is to destroy Trump and build ratings by shouting "Scandal!"  Those ratings are now plunging. 

When asked by the Times why Trump had hit his network, Zucker said the president's preferred medium is television.

“Television is his preferred medium,” Zucker said. “And he knows our viewers can be swayed because they’re not watching Fox or MSNBC” — networks with an ideological bent in prime time."

And CNN doesn't have an ideological bent?  Does he watch his own network?  Or is he watching game shows?

Zucker's interview with the Times comes as Trump's feud with the network escalates. 

On Sunday, Trump tweeted a redditor's video showing Trump body-slamming the CNN logo. The video has now been retweeted more than 330,000 times.

The video immediately sparked backlash from CNN and other journalists.

But the news outlet also faced its own criticism after it tracked down the creator of the video and, according to critics, 'threatened' to expose the identity of the redditor who created it.

COMMENT:  CNN needs new leadership, and a clear vision of what "the first name in news," as it calls itself, must be. 

I don't like everything Trump does, and his coarseness is unsettling and self-defeating.  But at least the man fights back against press corruption.  George W. Bush didn't fight back.  What did it get him, or the country?

July 6,  2017     Permalink

TRUMP TRIUMPH – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  President Trump has made a triumphant entry into Poland, a country that admires America and strong American leadership.  Leftist "intellectuals" need not apply.  From Daily Mail:

President Donald Trump spoke to thousands of cheering Poles in Warsaw on Thursday, calling their nation 'the geographic heart of Europe' and praising their countrymen for shaking off both Nazi oppressors and Russian occupiers in the last century.

'That's trouble. That's tough,' he exclaimed.

'In those dark days, you have lost your land but you never lost your pride.'

Trump delivered his address in Krasinski Square, at the foot of a statue commemorating the 1994 Polish uprising against German occupiers. He and first lady Melania Trump laid a wreath at its base.

Speaking behind bulletproof glass, he said Poles are 'a people who truly know the value of what you defend.' 

He urged them to uphold 'a future in which good conquers evil.'

They chanted 'USA, USA' and 'Donald Trump! Donald Trump!'

Trump had earlier met the Polish president and warned that the future of the West is in doubt.
In his speech he praised Poland's 'will to survive' because they 'have never, ever forgotten who they are.'

'The Polish experience reminds us - the defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail,' Trump said.

'Your oppressors tried to break you, but Poland could not be broken,' he said.

And Trump projected his fight against Middle Eastern terrorism onto the template of Poland's historic struggles, saying that 'We are fighting hard against radical Islamic terrorism, and we will prevail.'

'America and Europe have suffered one terror attack after another. We are going to get it to stop,' he said.

The president urged European nations to commit more of their money to NATO, as he said the organization's 'Article 5' commitment to mutual defense is an ironclad guarantee.

'Words are easy but actions matter,' he said.

COMMENT:   Ah, to hear cheers for an American president.  There are statues of Ronald Reagan in Poland.  There are statues of George W. Bush in Africa.  Where are the statues to Bill Clinton or Barack Obama?  In the anthropology department of an American college?

It's good that Trump mentioned Article 5 of the NATO charter.  The West Europeans have been going full-shrink over his failure to "reassure" them that he would abide by Article 5, which proclaims that an attack on one is an attack on all.   Now he's done it.  But, as he also said, words are easy. 

July 6, 2017    Permalink

JULY 5,  2017

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

THE RULE OF LAW – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  A prestigious New England college has instituted a new scholarship intended in part for illegal immigrant students.  The Marianne Ejier Olds ’47 Scholarship Fund will “support the education of students who are U.S. permanent residents with refugee or asylum status, undocumented students and international students at Smith [College],” according to Smith’s news portal.  The scholarship was established by Jacqueline Olds, the daughter of Marianne Ejier Olds. The elder Olds was an alumna of Smith, having been accepted in 1943 as part of the college’s refugee admissions program after having fled Nazi rule in Europe.  “It is important,” Jacqueline Olds said, “that the college be able to continue to support the educational needs of these students who face unique challenges. Someone needs to stick up for refugees, and I hope this sets an example for others to follow.”   The problem is that an illegal immigrant has broken the law.  There is no punishment.  There is no admonition.  How about scholarship programs for legal immigrants, or for Americans in disadvantaged communities?

THE FATE OF POLICE – FROM FOX:   The ambush shooting that killed a New York City police officer in the Bronx marked the latest in a growing number of officer deaths in 2017, up 18 percent from this time last year.  A total of 67 officers have died so far this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. It found there were 57 officer deaths between January 1 and July 5, 2016. In addition, gun-related deaths have risen by 9 percent, from 22 to 24 for 2017, the researchers say.  The figures suggest a grim trend; 2016 was the deadliest year for police in 5 years. A total of 135 officers died last year.  New York Police Department Officer Miosotis Familia was “assassinated” during an “unprovoked attack,” according to NYPD commissioner James O’Neill. Familia was sitting in her marked vehicle early Wednesday when a man shot at her through the window.   Of course, this has nothing to do with the anti-police rhetoric of the political left, or the contempt for police shown by the Obama administration.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.

COMMON SENSE – FROM FOX:    After the food stamp rolls swelled for years under the Obama administration, fresh figures show a dramatic reduction in states that recently have moved to restore work requirements.  States were allowed to waive those rules for able-bodied adults thanks to the 2009 economic stimulus. As the rules loosened and the economy sputtered out of the recession, food stamp enrollment soared to record levels – peaking at nearly 48 million nationwide in 2013.  But while that number has dipped gradually in recent years, some states have moved aggressively to push recipients who can work back into the job market and, in due time, off the program.  Alabama began 2017 by requiring able-bodied adults without children in 13 counties to either find a job or participate in work training as a condition for continuing to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.   According to AL.com, the number of those recipients declined from 5,538 to 831 between Jan. 1 and the beginning of May – an 85 percent drop.  And those off the rolls and into employment gain self-esteem and self-confidence.  Part of any good welfare program is a plan to get people out of the program.  That goal is often frustrated by those for whom welfare is a business, not a helping hand.

July 5, 2017       Permalink

NORTH KOREA BOASTS, BUT WHAT WILL WE DO? – AT 9:47 A.M. ET:   North Korea loves to rub salt in the wound, and why not?  There never seems to be an effective response from us, or anyone else.  This is a tough one.  North Korea is a dangerous rogue state, but even Secretary of Defense Mattis has warned of the horror of a ground war on the Korean peninsula.  From Reuters: 

North Korea said on Wednesday its newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) can carry a large nuclear warhead, triggering a call by Washington for global action to hold it accountable for pursuing nuclear weapons.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Defense Department said it had concluded that North Korea test-launched an ICBM on Tuesday, which some experts now believe had the range to reach the U.S. state of Alaska as well as parts of the mainland United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the test, on the eve of the U.S. Independence Day holiday, represented "a new escalation of the threat" to the United States and its allies, and vowed to take stronger measures.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the test completed his country's strategic weapons capability that includes atomic and hydrogen bombs and ICBMs, the state KCNA news agency said.

Pyongyang would not negotiate with the United States to give up those weapons until Washington abandons its hostile policy against the North, KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

"He, with a broad smile on his face, told officials, scientists and technicians that the U.S. would be displeased ... as it was given a 'package of gifts' on its 'Independence Day'," KCNA said.

Kim ordered them to "frequently send big and small 'gift packages' to the Yankees," it added.

The launch came days before leaders from the Group of 20 nations are due to discuss steps to rein in North Korea's weapons program, which it has pursued in defiance of United Nations Security Council sanctions.

The test successfully verified the technical requirements of the newly developed ICBM in stage separation, the atmospheric re-entry of the warhead and the late-stage control of the warhead, KCNA said.

Tillerson warned that any country that hosts North Korean workers, provides economic or military aid to Pyongyang, or fails to implement U.N. sanctions "is aiding and abetting a dangerous regime".

"All nations should publicly demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences to their pursuit of nuclear weapons," Tillerson said in a statement.

COMMENT:  Thus far the American response has been mild – Tillerson's routine statement, some test launchings of small missiles in an exercise in South Korea, and the president tweeting a message ridiculing Kim.

It will take much more.

After he was elected, President Trump said the North Koreans would never be permitted to have an ICBM.  They now have it.  Trump properly criticized Obama for allowing Syria to cross his red line, without punishment.  Now North Korea has crossed Trump's.

The problem is not easy.  All the options are problematical, most are dangerous.  But we elected Trump to solve problems, and now the responsibility is his.  He could, of course, decide to live with a nuclear North Korea, armed with ICBM's, and depend on deterrence.  But how would that differ from Obama's policy?

A decisive moment is at hand.

July 5, 2017       Permalink

PRESIDENT ON A MISSION – AT 8:12 A.M. ET:   The president launches his second international trip today, in the shadow of North Korea's latest nuclear test.  From Fox: 

President Donald Trump is just days away from crucial meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at this year’s G20 Summit in Germany. First, he stops today in Poland, where a conservative populace and strong pro-American sentiments are sure to make him feel welcome.

Maybe, if the West Europeans showed some respect for President Trump, they'd get some in return.  But it's very hard for Western Europe, with its socialist illusions, to understand reality.

He’s due to address a regional summit of Eastern European leaders and deliver a speech outlining his vision for trans-Atlantic ties.

Trump’s policies and statements have ruffled the feathers of many world leaders since he took office.

On Friday, leaders from the world’s biggest economies will meet at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, where many of those public spats could be rekindled.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she wants the summit to focus on key international issues such as climate change, free trade and an unfettered press — issues that push up against Trump’s positions and populist rhetoric.

COMMENT:   By contrast, Trump seems to be developing a good relationship with the new leaders of France.  He had a successful meeting with the new South Korean leader last week.  And he is making substantial progress in the Mideast. 

The headline of the trip will be the meeting with Putin.  The anti-Trump press will look for signs that the president is "soft" on Putin, and Trump must be careful not to provide the press with ammunition, something he unfortunately does regularly.  I'd like to see the White House describe the meeting as "correct and frank," which usually means troubled.  That's just right.

At the same time, Trump must make clear to the West Europeans that America is a worldwide power with worldwide interests.  Western Europe is only one of those interests.  The West Europeans demand too much attention. 

July 5, 2017       Permalink

COP ASSASSINATED IN NEW YORK – AT 7:50 A.M. ET:  We hope this isn't the start of another cycle of murders of officers.  From the New York Daily News: 

An NYPD officer shot while sitting in a police vehicle in the Bronx has died, authorities said early Wednesday.

The slain officer was identified as Miosotis Familia, 48, a 12-year veteran of the police force. She was assigned to the 46th Precinct. 

Two cops gunned down Familia’s alleged assailant during an exchange of fire after he blasted the mobile command post parked near E. 183rd St. and Creston Ave. around 12:30 a.m., according to police sources and Commissioner James O'Neill.

Surveillance footage shows the suspected 34-year-old shooter marching toward the command post “with purpose,” the source said.

O’Neill said the gunman fired one round, striking Familia in the head as she was wrapping up her shift in the Fordham Heights neighborhood.

The cop’s partner frantically screamed into his police radio for help…

….Officers with an NYPD anti-crime unit flocked to her partner’s distress call, confronting the fleeing gunman a block from the shooting on Morris Ave. He brandished a silver revolver and police opened fire, killing him, O'Neill said. 

He was identified as Alexander Bonds, whose criminal rap sheet includes an assault on a police officer with brass knuckles, a source said.

And...

The source said Bonds, who boasts up to six different aliases, recently spoke critically of law enforcement on an unspecified social media site. He said police in Oakland, Calif., were wrong to stop a child riding a bicycle.

And...

The late night holiday shooting was eerily similar to the assassination of two officers as they sat in their marked police car on a street in Brooklyn in December 2014.

Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were targeted by a gunman who had posted anti-police messages on his social media feeds in the days before the shooting, officials said at the time.

COMMENT:  I have no doubt that the NYPD will be on the highest alert as a result of this latest incident.  And there could be copycats out there in other cities.

The drumbeat of anti-cop rhetoric has already taken its toll.  We hope that toll does not grow.

July 5,  2017     Permalink