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JULY 21,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:06 P.M. ET: 

MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF RESIGNS – FROM REUTERS:  Minneapolis police chief Janee Harteau resigned on Friday at the request of the city's mayor, who said that she and the community had lost confidence in Harteau following the fatal police shooting of an unarmed Australian woman.  The death of Sydney native Justine Damond, 40, from a single gunshot wound to the abdomen fired through the open window of a police patrol car, has outraged her family members and the Australian public. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called it "shocking" and "inexplicable."  Mayor Betsy Hodges said in a written statement that she and Harteau agreed on Friday that Harteau would step aside.  "I've lost confidence in the Chief's ability to lead us further - and from the many conversations I've had with people around our city, especially this week, it is clear that she has lost the confidence of the people of Minneapolis as well," Hodges said in the statement.  A press conference Hodges called to discuss the personnel change was interrupted by a group of protesters calling for her to resign, a witness video posted on YouTube showed. 

NOT MUCH JUICE IN THE JUICE – FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:   TV ratings aren't as big as they used to be, even for O.J. Simpson.  Based on preliminary Nielsen data provided by various networks that carried the hearing, around 13.5 million TV viewers watched the Thursday hearing in which the former football star, actor and pitchman was granted parole after serving nine years in prison for a Las Vegas hotel room heist. The hearing was carried across four broadcast networks and several cable outlets, including ESPN.  The estimated figure pales next to previous multinetwork broadcasts of culturally iconic Simpson moments. An estimated 150 million viewers watched Simpson’s 1995 acquittal after standing trial for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. In June 1994, 95 million people tuned in to see police in a low-speed pursuit of Simpson in his white Ford Bronco through the streets of Los Angeles and on the 405 Freeway.  The trial and verdict were 22 years ago.  There's a whole generation out there who's probably never heard of O.J. Simpson.  Millions have never heard of Johnny Carson.  Don't underestimate the impact of time.

SPICER SPEAKS – FROM FOX:  Outgoing White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Friday that President Trump did not want him to resign but Spicer felt there were “too many cooks in the kitchen” promoting the president’s message.  “I just thought it was in the best interest of our communications department, of our press organization, to not have too many cooks in the kitchen,” Spicer told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview hours after he resigned from the White House on Friday.  Spicer quit in apparent protest after Trump tapped Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was promoted Friday to replace Spicer.  I have a feeling we'll see other changes soon.  I wouldn't be shocked to find out that Rex Tillerson's days at State are numbered.   More about that in future editions of Urgent Agenda.

July 21, 2017       Permalink

GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN FOR AT LEAST TEN MINUTES – AT 7:08 P.M. ET:   Sean Spicer, a good guy, has resigned as White House press secretary.  He was reportedly upset at the appointment of a new White House communications director.  When his concern was not honored by the president, he decided, understandably, to leave.  He is a competitive, very well-informed man who was beaten up badly by the anti-Trump media when he was giving the daily press briefings.  Those briefings are now being given by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who will succeed Spicer as press secretary. 

And the new communications director, who raised Sean's ire?  NBC News has a good portrait:  

Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, is a Wall Street hedge fund manager and a top Republican fundraiser who's known as "The Mooch."

The 53-year-old businessman and author joined Donald Trump’s campaign in February 2016 after the South Carolina Republican primary. He'd previously supported Republicans Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. After Trump won the White House, he joined the transition team.

Scaramucci founded SkyBridge Capital, a billion-dollar investment firm, in 2005. The company had nearly $12 billion assets before he announced he was selling it to a Chinese firm earlier this year.

Prior to founding SkyBridge, Scaramucci was the co-founder of Oscar Capital Management and a vice president at Goldman Sachs.

He hasn't previously served in government and dodged questions Friday on how he plans to work with Trump, who often usurps his own communications team. The president, Scaramucci said, is "the best communicator" in the White House.

"I love the president and the president is a very, very effective communicator," Scaramucci said. He praised Trump's use of social media to get his message out, saying, "To me, it’s been a very effective use to reach the American people effectively, and I welcome him to continue to do that."

And…

"Coming from a middle-class Italian American family on Long Island, you were always fighting for people to take you seriously. When someone slighted you, you remembered it," he wrote. "Embarrassment and shame were the worst feelings of all."

Scaramucci eventually worked his way through Tufts University outside Boston, where he received a degree in economics. He then went on to earn a law degree from Harvard.

COMMENT:  He's an interesting and very articulate man.  His background is not typical for communications directors, but that doesn't matter.  What matters is how he does his job in a very chaotic atmosphere.  He acquitted himself very well today.  The Trump White House needs much improvement.  Maybe this new unknown can provide some of it.

July 21, 2017       Permalink

IF YOU KNEW SUZIE, LIKE THEY KNOW SUZIE – AT 4:50 P.M. ET:  One of the behind-the-scenes stories that doesn't get emphasized in the liberal press is the ongoing, although quiet, investigation of misconduct by the Obama administration.  From what we can figure out, the current phase of the probe appears to be focused on two people – the well-known teller of tales Susan Rice, and the ultimate yes-woman, Samantha Power. 

We expected more of Power when she became our UN ambassador.  She had written a well-researched book on genocide, and we thought she'd stand up a bit more strongly against the totalitarian temptations of the Obama syndicate.  Alas, in the end, she was a company man, ur, woman, or anything she wishes to be.  But she was company.

Right now Ms. Rice is apparently on the hot seat, and without a literary agent.  From Fox:

Former national security adviser Susan Rice met privately Friday with Senate Intelligence Committee staffers, Fox News has learned – in one of several Capitol Hill sessions involving Obama administration officials.

A closed-door session with Rice had been expected earlier this week on the House side, but ended up being pushed off. It remains unclear whether Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., or any other senators were present for Friday’s meeting.

Some lawmakers have made clear they want to hear more from Obama administration officials, especially Rice, over their potential role in "unmasking" the identities of Trump associates from intelligence reports last year.

Rice has come under fire for her alleged role. Congressional investigators have issued subpoenas to the NSA, CIA and FBI seeking "unmasking" information related to three individuals: Rice, former CIA Director John Brennan and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.
Rice initially told PBS's Judy Woodruff in March that she “knew nothing” about the unmasking of Trump associates. But weeks later on MSNBC, she admitted she sometimes sought out the identities of Trump associates who communicated with foreigners, a request known as “unmasking” in the intelligence community.

She never told the same story twice.  At least she was original.

But “I leaked nothing to nobody,” Rice told MSNBC, a reference to media reports detailing, among other conversations, those between then-national security adviser Michel Flynn and Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. Reports of those conversations led to Flynn's resignation in February.

In an interview with New York Magazine published earlier this week, Rice suggested that her race and gender may be playing a role in the controversy. 

She's down to that.  You know there's a problem.

Power, too, has agreed to testify before the House intelligence committee as part of its Russia probe, Fox News has learned.

COMMENT:  It is critical that the Republicans be unrelenting.  In earlier Benghazi hearings they were lackluster, gentlemanly...and Republican.  Whenever I see Republicans in committee hearings I wonder if they're really thinking about how their ties look.  Nice ties.  Good ties.  Brooks Brothers.

July 21,  2017     Permalink

BRILLIANT, BY HANSON – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  Victor Davis Hanson, one of the finest of conservative historians, has written the best piece by far on what's happened to the American media.  It should be widely quoted.  From the Hoover Institution: 

In the 2008 campaign, reporters ignored the close and disturbing relationships between the mostly unknown Obama and a cast of unsavory characters: his racist and anti-Semitic pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the neighborhood confidant and former terrorist Bill Ayers, and the wheeler-dealer and soon-to-be felon Tony Rezko.

Instead, journalists quickly started worshipping candidate Obama in a manner never quite seen before, not even in the days of the iconic liberal presidents like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Newsweek editor Evan Thomas declared Obama to be a deity (“Obama's standing above the country, above the world, he’s sort of God.”) His very words were able to make the leg of MSNBC’s Chris Matthew “tingle.” His pants’ crease proved for David Brooks a talisman of his future greatness, along with the fact that the mellifluent Obama “talks like us.”

While a few journalists were aware of their cult-like worship, most were hooked and competed to outdo one another with embarrassing hagiographic praise. Upon election, Obama was summarily declared by one presidential historian and television pundit to the smartest man with the highest IQ ever to have been president.

And...

By the time of 2016 presidential race, the media had lost their credibility as disinterested guardians of objective truth. And while Hillary Clinton in 2016 was no Barack Obama in 2008, reporters still gave her special privileges. CNN talking-head Donna Brazile fed debate questions to the Clinton campaign prior to a Clinton-Sanders televised debate. And the John Podesta Wikileaks trove revealed that a number of marquee reporters were openly colluding with Clinton to defeat Trump.

Once the media crossed the Rubicon of partisanship, there was no turning back. The unchecked ebullience that they had showed for Obama has now been replaced by an undisguised hatred for Donald Trump. Just as journalists saw no negative repercussions in their adoration of Obama, they are now able to denigrate the conservative populist Trump without consequences. Arrogance plays a role: the media feel that they displayed power in getting Obama elected and now they wager that they can also ensure Trump’s defeat, or at least derail his presidency

The liberal Harvard Kennedy School and Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy issued a report recently showing how the media has established a “new standard” of negativity in presidential reporting. It noted that the aggregate news stories from the first 100 days of the Trump administration were about 80% critical. Some networks such as CNN aired 93% negative coverage of the president.

And...

What caused the media’s Trump meltdown? There were a variety reasons.

Trump represents everything that the media despise: a crude reality-TV billionaire without military or political experience, whose orange skin, combed over dyed blond hair, sharp Queens accent, and confrontational attitude seemed vulgar and crass.

The nexus between beltway politics and the media, often cemented through marriages and familial relationships, recoiled that an outsider like Trump sought not just to overturn the Obama agenda but to do so unapologetically and with the same executive orders that Obama himself had bragged about in his “pen and phone” ultimata to make laws without the help of the Congress.

Moreover, Trump campaigned on an us/them, red-state/blue-state dichotomy. He smashed the proverbial Democratic blue wall—a fact that caused great unease to liberal journalists who sensed that half the country found their coastal progressive culture not just foreign but apparently hypocritical and elitist.

Finally...

If the media became unhinged in the adulatory Obama years through hubris, it might have earned back its respect and professionalism by covering Trump in even-handed fashion. But Nemesis does not work that way: those it destroys, it first makes mad.

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  Send it around to literate liberals, both of them.  Hanson lays out a scenario that is frightening.  The press is not doing the job that the First Amendment intended.   How does a free society solve that crucial problem?

July 21,  2017     Permalink

JULY 20,  2017

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

WE JUST CANNOT WAIT! – FROM DAILY CALLER:   WASHINGTON — California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, a favorite among liberal progressives, told The Daily Caller Thursday that this weekend’s scheduled appearance in New Hampshire has nothing to do with potentially running for president in 2020.  But she said that she would run for president if millennials want her to.  “I’m just going up to do a county Democratic thing. That’s all,” she said.  When TheDC pressed further, Waters, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, said laughing, “I’m not running for anything but my own seat. I don’t have any presidential aspirations. If the millennials want me to do it, I’d do it, though.”  I'm sure the letters of encouragement will come pouring in.  Run Maxine run!  You'll run so well in those working-class sections of the Midwest!

WHAT A JERK – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   Bill Nye “the Science Guy” said Wednesday that significant action on climate change will be possible once the climate skeptics and deniers of older generations die off.  Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, the 61-year-old TV host was asked to comment on a recent Pew survey that revealed 58 percent of Republicans and right-leaning Independents believe higher education has a negative effect on the country, a number that spiked significantly during President Trump’s rise to power.  Mr. Nye said people are just scared of the truth.  “It just sounds like people are afraid,” he said. “And the people who are afraid in general — with due respect, and I am now one of them — are older. Climate change deniers, by way of example, are older. It’s generational. So we’re just going to have to wait for those people to ‘age out,’ as they say. ‘Age out’ is a euphemism for ‘die.’ But it’ll happen, I guarantee you — that’ll happen.”  Thanks for your enthusiasm, science guy.  Did it ever occur to you that many of these people whose death you'll welcome are actually the wisest, most experienced citizens we have?  That they've learned through experience to be skeptical, to ask questions?  Who needs people like that, right?

THE EXCITEMENT BUILDS – FROM DAILYWIRE.COM:   In an attempt to destroy themselves ahead of the 2018 election cycle, Democrats have come up with yet another slogan guaranteed to fail dramatically: “Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages” – which sounds more like an advertisement for a temp agency than an actual Congressional campaign slogan...As several commentators have pointed out, this slogan is also a rip-off of Papa John’s: “Better ingredients. Better pizza. Papa John’s.”  I'd rather vote for Papa John. 

July 20, 2017       Permalink

SESSIONS SAYS HE'LL STAY – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:   Attorney general Jeff Sessions says he'll stay on, despite the tongue lashing he got from President Trump yesterday.  From Fox: 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday he plans to stay on the job at the Department of Justice, on the heels of President Trump sharply criticizing him for recusing himself from the Russia probe.

In a press conference on Thursday scheduled to discuss cybercrime, Sessions' appearance took a quick turn to the issue of whether the top law enforcement official plans to offer his resignation to Trump.

“We in this Department of Justice will continue every single day to work hard to serve the national interest, and we whole-heartedly join in priorities of President Trump,” Sessions responded. “I have the honor of serving as attorney general. It’s something that goes beyond any thought that I’ve ever had for myself.”

Sessions added: “We love this job, and we love this department and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate.”

COMMENT:  He's basically saying that Trump would have to fire him.  Sessions, to some degree, has his own power center.  As a former senator he has many friends in the Senate who would take offense if Trump humiliated him. 

But you never know with Trump.  He comes from the New York real-estate industry, which is one step above organized genocide.

July 20, 2017       Permalink

AND MORE NONSENSE FROM CNN – AT 10:17 A.M. ET:   The "most trusted name in news," as it calls itself, really can't be trusted with anything other than badminton scores.  There may even be a question about that. 

CNN gave three times more coverage to the alleged ‘secret meeting’ between President Trump and Vladimir Putin at a G-20 dinner than former President Barack Obama's infamous hot mic gaffe with Russia's former president in 2012, according to a study by the Media Research Center.

The study, released on Wednesday by Newsbusters, showed that from the time the news broke late Tuesday afternoon on the previously undisclosed Trump-Putin talk through around midnight, CNN spent over 75 minutes covering the discussion. 

Trump and his aides pushed back hard on the media's coverage of that meeting, downplaying its significance and suggesting there was nothing 'secret' about it. 

The MRC study, meanwhile, contrasted CNN's coverage with that of the March 2012 conversation between Obama and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. 

Obama’s microphone was on during the exchange where he told Medvedev that “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”

Medvedev responded: “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir [Putin].”

COMMENT:  You'd think, considering liberal hysteria over Trump's contacts with Putin, that liberals are hard-nosed anti-Russkie zealots.  In fact, the Obama administration was breathtakingly soft on Russia, and on Communism generally.  

Why don't "journalists" remember that?  I wonder why.

July 20, 2017       Permalink

NO NEWS NEWS – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  The news industry is getting desperate for more anti-Trump news.  From Reuters: 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - About one in eight people who voted for President Donald Trump said they are not sure they would do so again after witnessing Trump's tumultuous first six months in office, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll of 2016 voters.

While most of the people who voted for Trump on Nov. 8 said they would back him again, the erosion of support within his winning coalition of older, disaffected, mostly white voters poses a potential challenge for the president. Trump, who won the White House with the slimmest of margins, needs every last supporter behind him to push his agenda through a divided Congress and potentially win a second term in 2020.

The poll surveyed voters who had told Reuters/Ipsos on Election Day how they had cast their ballots.

While other surveys have measured varying levels of disillusionment among Trump supporters, the Reuters/Ipsos poll shows how many would go as far as changing the way they voted. The survey was carried out first in May and then again in July.

COMMENT:  Hardly shocking.  It's actually very common for presidents to lose support, or struggle to get support, during their first year.  And it is very common for presidents to take a beating in the first mid-year election following their own taking the oath.  Negative opinion is pretty casually developed.

FDR suffered enormous losses in Congress in his first mid-term following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  We were at war, fighting for our existence, and yet the people handed the commander-in-chief a substantial defeat.

Maybe it's the American "show us what you can do" attitude.  But it's not a major headline that Trump is struggling.

July 20,  2017     Permalink