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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

JUNE 12,  2017

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

HOW CLASSY – FROM DAILYWIRE:  CNN serial plagiarist Fareed Zakaria went to see a production of Julius Caesar in New York's Central Park, a play that we now know depicts the gruesome assassination of President Trump. Nothing wrong with that. Zakaria might not have known what he was in for.  But after it was over, Zakaria so enjoyed the bloody spectacle, was so enthused, he declared the play a "masterpiece" and publicly recommended it to others.  "If you're in NYC, go see Julius Caesar, free in Central Park," Zakaria tweeted 13 days ago, "brilliantly interpreted for Trump era. A masterpiece."  More class from CNN, which has become a supermarket tabloid with pretty faces.

THEY'RE COMING, THEY'RE COMING – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:   Alien life could be discovered within the next two decades – but, these lifeforms will be far from intelligent beings, one expert claims.  According to astronomer Chris Impey, scientists are likely on the verge of detecting microbes on a planet beyond our own, with nearby candidates such as Jupiter’s moon Europa thought to contain some of the conditions to support life.  While scientists have been searching the skies for decades, the expert says we may now detect microbial life in the next 10 to 15 years, especially as forthcoming instruments such as the James Webb Telescope promise to improve our chances.   Microbial life is fine.  That's more advanced than the Democratic Party.  Nancy Pelosi can greet the first microbe.

LATEST TRENDS – FROM WHIMN:   Do you spend more quality time with your phone than you do with your partner? Are you compulsively checking for notifications and endlessly scrolling through your social media feeds while in the presence of your significant other?  If this sounds like you, you may be one of millions of people experiencing what is a relatively new psychological condition known as ‘phubbing’ that, according to influential new research, may be slowly eroding your relationship with your partner.   It used to be called rudeness.

June 12,  2017     Permalink

A SERIOUS WARNING – AT 11:50 A.M. ET:  William Bratton is New York City's former police commissioner, one of the leading police authorities in the country.  He should know.  From the New York Post:   

Recent acts of terror in Europe are the “new normal” — and surely coming soon to the United States, former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton ominously warned Sunday.

Evildoers have stepped up attacks on soft targets — such as London Bridge, Manchester Arena and Bastille Day in Nice — in the past 12 months, making a similar terrorist strike on American soil inevitable, Bratton told “The Cats Roundtable.”

“(European-style terror attacks are) going to be the new normal in our world,” Bratton told interviewer John Catsimatidis on AM 970. “The pace of terrorist attacks, certainly in Europe, has been increasing.” Bratton warned: “That type of attack is quite likely to occur in the United States at some point in time.”

Even as US-backed forces close in on ISIS in Raqqa, Syria, the terror group will only spread from a setback in a conventional war, according to Bratton — analogizing it to a particularly gross medical procedure.

“As the issue in Syria comes to closure as ISIS loses its last city in the caliphate, unfortunately, it is like lancing a boil,” he said.

“What is inside will spread around the world even more.”

Bratton blamed porous European borders for exacerbating the problem.
“
The open-border situation in Europe is compounding the problem,” said Bratton, who served as NYPD commish in two stints, 1994-96 and 2014-16. “It [hinders the effort] of trying to keep track of people who identify as terrorists or having terrorist leanings.”

COMMENT:  Common sense talking.  But it may be futile.  There are still too many people around who believe that we must get at the "root causes" of terrorism.  The problem with that notion is that you've got to get the root causes right.  It's been my experience that the "root causes" crowd never gets them right because it doesn't want to.  It wants to push an ideology.  Crime?  Root cause – poverty and lack of services.  Hey, who cares about culture or lax law enforcement?  Terrorism?  Root cause – poverty, lack of opportunity, colonialism.  Hey, who cares about religious ideology shoved down the throats of vulnerable young men?

Show me the problem and I'll check with the nearest leftist "scholar," who'll provide the root cause without even looking.

June 12, 2017       Permalink

I HOPE TRUMP DOESN'T SEE THIS – AT 10:53 A.M. ET:  I wouldn't want Mike Pence to disappear in the White House basement.   From Axios:

Beyond his base voters, Trump has an even bigger potential problem looming with his base in Congress. While Republican lawmakers won't say it publicly, it's widely known if they could pick between President Pence and President Trump, the Vice President would win 90% of the vote among the GOP.

Why this matters: Bill Clinton benefited from a large number of true fans and believers among elected Democrats when he survived impeachment. Trump has few authentic fans or loyalists in Congress. So if things take a turn for the worse, GOP flight could come fast and furious — since the end result would be President Pence.

COMMENT:  This is the great unspoken political issue.  It's there, it's felt, it's not discussed on TV panel shows.  There are many GOP members of Congress who would love to see Trump shoved out the way Nixon was shoved out – by forcing him to resign. 

Problem is, Trump isn't Nixon.  Nixon, with all his faults, had a sense of politics and a sense of history.  He resigned because he knew the alternative was probably impeachment.  Even if he wasn't convicted at an impeachment trial, he knew he'd be fatally weakened.

Trump is no such animal.  He's the roughest of the gut fighters.  Whether he'd resign in the face of some stunning revelation, or the findings of an investigation, is "iffy."  But Mike Pence is waiting in the wings, and is out on the stump often.  

It may come to that.  That's when the drama really begins.

June 12, 2017       Permalink

POLLING LATEST – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  You'd think, listening to the mainstreamers, that President Trump is about to be driven out of town by the American people.  Why, the sky actually is falling.  And yet, new polling from Rasmussen suggests that the sky is in place, and that the president's numbers are actually remaining pretty steady.  From Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-four percent (54%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 30% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 44% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14.

Two out of the three nights in this survey follow former FBI Director James Comey’s public testimony before a Senate panel. We’ll tell you at 10:30 what voters think of Comey’s testimony.
Just prior to his appearance before Congress, voters trusted Comey more than the president by a 45% to 37% margin, but there was a substantial partisan difference of opinion.

From comments Comey made in his testimony, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee now says there should be a probe of whether former Attorney General Loretta Lynch tried to undercut the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s handling of top security information while secretary of State. Last year, 54% of voters favored naming a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton because of potential conflict of interest concerns about Lynch and the Justice Department. 

The Rasmussen Consumer Confidence Index has jumped to its second highest rating ever.

COMMENT:  Actually, not bad.  The Consumer Confidence figure is sure to help Trump.  But he's got to survive the onslaught of investigations.

The Democratic style remains the same:  The party is very unpopular, and is today mostly a coastal and college-town organization.  The most active part of its base is far left.  Ideologically, the party is heading in a direction that is disastrous for itself and the country.  But the Dems always have an out, and that is something called "lawfare."  Do everything with lawsuits.  If you can't win with the people, try to win in court. 

So they'll try to destroy Trump with probes and court cases, having lost to him in the greater court of public opinion.  I hope the GOP is agile enough to counter the attack..

June 12,  2017     Permalink

JUNE 11,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M.  ET: 

SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein called for the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate former attorney general Loretta Lynch instructing James Comey to mislead the public about the Clinton email investigation.  Comey testified on Thursday that Lynch instructed him, without explanation, to call the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use a private email server as secretary of a state a “matter” instead of an investigation. Lynch’s request, Comey said, made him feel “queasy” as it appeared she was “looking to align the way we talked about our work with the way the political campaign was describing the same activity, which was inaccurate.”  Feinstein is to be praised for her call, which goes against the interests of her own party.  Now the Republicans must follow up.  Of course this needs to be investigated!

SOME GOOD DECISIONS – FROM THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:  Delta Airlines and Bank of America pulled out of their sponsorship of New York’s Public Theater on Sunday over a production of “Julius Caesar” that reimagines the main character as President Trump.  Shortly after Delta, who was a four-year sponsor, made its announcement, Bank of America yanked its support as well.  The Shakespeare in the Park play tells the story of the leader assassinated by Roman senators over the fear that he’s becoming too tyrannical, but rather than the original setting, the production stages Caesar (Gregg Henry) and his wife, Calpurnia, (Tina Benko) with Donald and Melania Trump lookalikes.  Henry, who already played a Trump stand-in on “Scandal” last year, models his Caesar almost perfectly after the man in the Oval Office. He meets his end after being stabbed to death by women and minorities on stage.   This is the legendary "Free Shakespeare in the Park" series.  Was it necessary to sully even this to prove loyalty to the political left?  I look forward to other sponsors pulling out. 

I'M JUST SO EXCITED – FROM THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:  Political watchers in the Hamptons are finding themselves nostalgic about Camelot amid today’s reality show White House.
“All everybody can talk about is Caroline Kennedy having her eye on another (congressional) run,” says one prominent Hamptons-goer, freshly back from a long weekend out east — and about to embark on another.
According to that source — a Republican who knows President Trump personally and is in good standing with both the Clinton and Bush families — the Democratic Kennedy’s possible candidacy for a 2018 congressional seat is being regarded among some circles as part of a larger push for power by blue-blood elites out east.  “She’s the family matriarch now,” says our insider. “Even her son Jack, who’s 24, is the focus of talk about fulfilling the legacy.”  Will someone write Caroline a note and tell her we don't do dynasties?  Even the Roosevelts have faded, and Jeb Bush was handed the message last year. 

June 11, 2017      Permalink

PUERTO RICO VOTES – AN UNDERREPORTED STORY – AT 12:51 P.M. ET:  Puerto Rico, which is essentially bankrupt, votes today, as it does periodically, on what its people want for their future.  But does the vote actually matter?  From the Miami Herald.

When Puerto Ricans vote Sunday on the political future for the U.S. territory, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló is confident most will choose statehood.

“It’s unfortunate U.S. citizens here don’t have the same power,” he said. “We need to take action.”
But in some ways, the timing couldn’t be worse. With a political divide on the island, a deepening economic crisis and — critically — a lack of congressional support to become the 51st American state, experts say the vote seems unlikely to result in any real change.

“Now is the worst time and the worst manner to deal with the issue,” said Federico de Jesús, a Puerto Rico native and the former deputy director of the Governor of Puerto Rico’s Washington, D.C., office, under former Gov. Alejandro García Padilla, a member of the Popular Democratic Party who opposes statehood. “All parties agree that the current system needs to be modified, but this is definitely the wrong course of action.”

This will be the island’s fifth referendum asking Puerto Ricans to choose statehood, independence or keep some version of the current status as a commonwealth. Opposition groups who don’t believe in statehood and felt unrepresented on the ballot — which originally included only statehood and independence/free association — are boycotting the vote, and experts say a statehood verdict doesn’t necessarily represent what the population wants.

COMMENT:  Puerto Rico's problems will not be solved until the population is more unified, and heading more in one direction.  It is a very messy situation.

Many Puerto Ricans, of course, come to the mainland, and have become an important part of our economy.  And yet, the future of Puerto Rico is an invisible mainland issue.  When was the last time you saw it debated?

June 11, 2017        Permalink

THE WORM TURNS – AT 12:14 P.M. ET:  The Comey testimony has produced several dramatic turns.  Now it is Comey who is, in some circles at least, under investigation.  From Breitbart: 

A bipartisan group of powerful senators is asking the man believed to have helped ex-FBI Director James Comey leak his infamous “let this go” memo to the media to produce that memo for them.

Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-DE) — the chairs and ranking Democrats of the Senate Judiciary Committee and its National Security Subcommittee — sent a letter Thursday to Columbia Law Professor Daniel Richman demanding he provide them with the original memo he supposedly leaked to CNN on Comey’s say-so.

The letter calls the memo, reported to describe President Donald Trump telling Comey to go easy on former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, “relevant to the Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigative efforts.”

The letter also demanded all other memoranda Comey may have provided Richman and gave him only until midnight Friday. Breitbart News cannot confirm if Richman complied with the senators’ demands.

Richman confirmed to multiple news outlets Thursday that he was the “friend” whom Comey enlisted to leak the memo to the press. This ended speculation that began immediately after Comey admitted under oath he had leaked the memo containing his account of conversations between himself and President Donald Trump. Comey claimed that his hope in doing so, immediately after he was fired, was to force the appointment of a special counsel, which has now come to pass in the person of Comey’s predecessor as head of the FBI, Robert Mueller.

COMMENT:  I love the fact that the leak enabler is a Columbia law professor.  I wonder what he teaches his students.  Leaking 102?  Lawbreaking 304, a prerequisite to Bringing Down the Government 325? 

The sad thing here is that all these inquiries, which have uncovered so little, are making it more and more difficult for the government to govern.  And, of course, that is the Democratic purpose – to frustrate the will of the people by these tactics.  Who cares what those deplorables want?

June 11,  2017     Permalink