Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

SECOND SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE OF 2018

LAST WEEK!

(Report to readers:  Six days to go before our drive ends.  Please do subscribe or donate.)

Subscriptions and donations make our work possible.  Without them, we could not continue.  

By participating you'll be supporting our efforts, but you'll also receive our twice-a-week emailed page, the Angel's Corner.  It features posts by subscribers and donators like you, and is our most popular feature.  Our readers can write, many have vast experience in areas we cover, and they have plenty to say.   

Details on subscribing and donating are in the right-hand column of this page, opposite these words, under SUBSCRIPTONS. 

If you're already a subscriber or donator, please consider raising your participation to secure our future. 

You can join us through PayPal, or use SENDINC, which has become widely accepted by our readers.  If you prefer a regular mail subscription, just email me at service@urgentagenda.com, and I'll give you our mailing address. 

We hope to welcome you.

JUNE 18, 2018

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

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – FROM FOX:  CHICAGO – A Chicago Public Schools principal suddenly retired after she outraged parents by inviting an anti-police extremist to talk to students on “Career Day.”  Mary Beth Cunat personally invited the anti-police activist, Ethan Ethos, to speak to sixth through eighth-grade students at Wildwood Elementary School. Ethos is a self-described “radical” who routinely posts violent anti-police rhetoric online...In an apology letter to parents, Cunat wrote that she brought in Ethos to talk to students about his poetry and civic work, but things went off the rails.  “He told them all the police are bad and all the police wanted to kill people,” said Linda Ricciardi, who had three children listen to Ethos on career day. “I was very disappointed that someone would come into this school and preach hate about the police. Or, even if he was talking about someone else, I would still be upset.”  One wonders how something like this can happen.  It is perfectly evident that the extreme left has penetrated into our school systems.  This is just one example.  And when the disgrace is detected and publicized, the educators claim they didn't know.  I recall that line from history.

LATEST POLL RESULTS – FROM DAILY BEAST:  Self-identified Republicans now have a marginally more favorable view of Kim Jong Un than they do for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), according to a new Ipsos poll done exclusively for The Daily Beast.  The poll of roughly 1,000 adults aged 18 and over was conducted June 14-15, shortly after President Trump’s historic summit with the North Korea dictator. According to the results, 19 percent of Republicans indicated they had a favorable view of Kim with 68 percent saying they had an unfavorable view (12 percent of voters overall had a favorable view of Kim, compared to 75 percent who viewed him unfavorably). That compared slightly better than the perception of Pelosi, who had a 17 percent favorable, 72 percent unfavorable rating among self-identified Republicans.  I think Republicans are being too harsh.  Kim is a killer; Nancy is only a bore.  I say, one cheer for Nancy.

DAKOTA SHOWDOWN – FROM THE HILL:   The Senate race in North Dakota between Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D) and Rep. Kevin Cramer (R) is all but a toss-up, a poll released Monday found.  The Mason-Dixon poll showed Cramer with a 4-point lead over Heitkamp, which falls within the survey’s margin of error.  Forty-eight percent of voters said they would support Cramer if the election were held today, while 44 percent said they’d back Heitkamp. Another 8 percent said they are undecided.   The poll surveyed 625 adults in North Dakota between June 13 and June 15. Its margin of error is 4 percentage points.  Heitkamp is among the most vulnerable senators up for re-election in November. President Trump won North Dakota in the 2016 presidential election by roughly 36 percentage points over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.  The president is scheduled to make a trip to Fargo, N.D., on June 27, ostensibly to rally support for Cramer.  I'm a bit uneasy about this.  North Dakota is a red state, and the GOP challenger should be further ahead by now.  Heitkamp, as the incumbent, has higher name recognition, and that may explain the closeness of the race.  I'm hoping for a GOP pickup.

June 18, 2018       Permalink

THE PITS – AT 3:01 P.M. ET:  We write a great deal here about bad journalism, and we never exhaust the subject.  One of the worst ingredients of bad journalism is tasteless journalism, especially when committed by a "prestigious" newspaper.   The New York Times just committed a whopper.  From the Washington Times: 

The long knives (and brass knuckles) are clearly out for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. We wrote weeks ago about the organized Left’s attacks on President Trump’s most effective and influential cabinet secretary. His efforts in rolling back job-killing regulations have been a prime force in driving the Trump economy and the media and Democrats can’t stand it.

Through all of the attacks, smears and innuendos Pruitt has persevered and not gone shrinking into the night. In the rough and tumble world of the DC Swamp, Pruitt isn’t playing by the regular rules.

When hit pieces are published with half-truths and innuendo dressed up as “scandals” that aren’t really scandals at all, the “where there’s smoke there’s fire” attitude dictates that the target of the slime must acquiesce and resign. That’s just what’s expected.

But Pruitt won’t go. He has work to do and he’s going to do it. So now, they’re going after his family.

Last week the New York Times published the latest charge against Pruitt. They claim Pruitt forces employees at the EPA to do personal favors for the administrator and his family.

The most volatile and damning allegation was that Pruitt used his position as Trump’s man at EPA to twist arms at the University of Virginia Law School to get his daughter admitted. The implication is clear. That Pruitt’s daughter was admitted despite her lack of qualifications and only because her daddy is well placed in the Trump Administration.

Except, the story wasn’t true.

In a massive correction, The Times explains that not only did the recommendation for Pruitt’s daughter (a thing that pretty much every student acquires when applying for a prestigious school like UVA Law) was obtained not only before Pruitt was EPA Administrator, it happened before the presidential election of 2016.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing.  At least The Times apologized, but that is hardly enough.  The damage is done.  Every time this young woman's name is Googled, for the rest of her life, the "false story" is bound to come up.  Even after an apology, it leaves a shadow. 

First rule:  We don't go after the children of public figures.

Second rule:   All basic facts, especially dates and timelines, are checked before the story is handed in.

Third rule:  Blind hatred leads to bad journalism.

June 18,  2018     Permalink

PREVIEW OF COMING ATTRACTIONS – AT 10:40 A.M. ET:  It's High Noon in Congress.  But who will play the Gary Cooper role?  And Grace Kelly?  From Fox:

FBI Director Christopher Wray and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz are expected to be the centers of attention Monday when they testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Horowitz's bombshell report on the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton's personal email server.

Horowitz's report, released Thursday, singled out then-FBI Director James Comey for harsh criticism and referred five other bureau employees for potential disciplinary action.

Most notably, Horowitz found that anti-Trump text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page "potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations."

However, the report also noted the FBI's decision not to prosecute Clinton in July 2016 was not motivated by political bias against then-candidate Donald Trump.

In one text exchange from August 2016, Page texted Strzok: "[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!"

"No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it," Strzok responded.

Another FBI attorney, who was the primary attorney assigned to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation until this past February, messaged an FBI employee the day after Trump's election as president that he was "just devastated."

"I just can't imagine the systematic disassembly of the progress we made over the last 8 years," the attorney, dubbed "FBI Attorney 2" in the report, later added.

However, the watchdog found that "no evidence that the conclusions by the prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations."

"The question I have [is] was the Department of Justice and the FBI, the people in charge of the Clinton investigation, were they really in the tank or not?" Judiciary Committee member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Thursday. "We'll see what the conclusions are and I will challenge Mr. Horowitz [on whether] his conclusion that they weren’t in the tank makes sense. Time will tell."

COMMENT:  We're finally getting to possible paydirt on all these investigations.  One question that will come up is whether probes into Hillary Clinton will be reopened.

June 18,  2018     Permalink

JUNE 17,  2018

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

WHERE IS SHERLOCK? – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:   Less than one in 20 street robberies and burglaries are being solved in the UK, shocking new figures have revealed.  Official police data shows that just four per cent of robberies and three per cent of burglaries were solved in England and Wales in 2017. 
The figures will fuel concerns that there is a crisis in the nation's policing, with one MP describing London as 'the Wild West'.  In more than 1,000 neighbourhoods with at least 30 crimes, the police failed to catch and punish any of the suspects, The Sunday Times report.  Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, south Buckinghamshire, south Cambridgeshire, Blackpool and Preston had the lowest rates of solved crime, according to figures.  Meanwhile the most crimes, 26 per cent, were solved in Uttlesford in Essex last year, followed by Boston, Merthyr Tydfil, Darlington and County Durham.  The figures also reveal that only nine per cent of suspects in all crimes are caught and punished - a reduction of more than 50 per cent in the past five years.  This is pretty serious stuff, and an example of Britain's decline.  Margaret Thatcher would never have tolerated this.  I am guessing that part of the problem is the reluctance of the police to take on "new" populations, lest they be called racists.

BIGOTRY OF THE LEFT – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  At Ball State University, mandatory fees collected from students have funded events such as a Planned Parenthood rally and a “God is Dead: Life without Religion” event, while pro-life students seeking funds to educate peers on pregnant and parenting resources are refused support.  For that, Students for Life at Ball State University has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the public, Indiana-based institution.  “All Students for Life is asking for is equal access to the same funds that they pay into,” Caleb Dalton, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the students, said in a phone interview with The College Fix.  Dalton said the $300 Students for Life requested earlier this year was sought from a pool of money consisting of mandatory fees all students pay into. For the 2017-18 school year, every student paid $1,318 in mandatory fees, collected in addition to tuition, according to the lawsuit.   I hope they win.  The bigotry on college campuses has reached breathtaking proportions.

WE KNEW IT ALL ALONG – FROM THE JERUSALEM POST:    The director of the American Civil Liberties Union has now acknowledged what should have been obvious to everybody over the past several years: that the ACLU is no longer a neutral defender of everyone’s civil liberties; it has morphed into a hyper-partisan, hard-left political advocacy group. The final nail in its coffin was the announcement that for the first time in its history the ACLU would become involved in partisan electoral politics, supporting candidates, referenda and other agenda-driven political goals.  The headline in the June 8 2018 edition of the New Yorker tells it all: “The ACLU is getting involved in elections – and reinventing itself for the Trump Era.” The article continues: In this midterm year, however, as progressive groups have mushroomed and grown more active, and as liberal billionaires such as Howard Schultz and Tom Steyer have begun to imagine themselves as political heroes and eye Presidential runs, the ACLU, itself newly flush, has begun to move in step with the times.  For the first time in its history, the ACLU is taking an active role in elections. The group has plans to spend more than $25 million on races and ballot initiatives by Election Day, in November.  I think the problem goes back much further than several years ago.  It was in the 1960s when the ACLU, which used to boast both liberals and conservatives among its members, started it march to the left.  Some years ago a disgusted former national board member told me there were members of the board who didn't believe in free speech.  It's pathetic, but I hope this step into partisan politics marks the end of a dishonest, deceptive organization.

June 17, 2018        Permalink

A FATHER'S DAY STORY – I LOVE IT – AT 12:33 P.M. ET:   Bernie Sanders provides us with more proof that, even on Father's Day, he's a bit out of touch with the rest of the country.  From Fox: 

If Bernie Sanders doesn’t receive a Father’s Day card on Sunday, the reason might not be hard to figure out.

The U.S. senator from Vermont has declined to endorse his son Levi Sanders, 49, a candidate for a U.S. House seat in New Hampshire, according to reports.

“He’s on his own,” the elder Sanders told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday night, adding that he doesn’t like “dynastic politics.”

Some say they are not surprised, because the elder Sanders has a long history of being stingy with political endorsements.

In the mid-1980s, for example, Sanders declined to do more to aid what has evolved into Vermont's Progressive Party. Then last winter he declined to help his stepdaughter, Carina Driscoll, run for the mayor's office in Burlington, Vt., which Sanders himself once held.

“This is a fancy dance that Bernie has done, but it's not recommended for anyone else," said Garrison Nelson, a University of Vermont political science professor emeritus. “This is a testament to Bernie’s uniqueness as a political actor.”

For his part, Levi Sanders -- a legal services analyst who is one of 11 seeking the Democratic nomination to fill the seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter -- has joked that rather than being Bernie Sanders' son, he is the son of the fourth cousin of Larry David, the co-creator of “Seinfeld” who has portrayed Bernie Sanders on “Saturday Night Live.”

COMMENT:  Ah, family values.  As the old saying goes, Bernie is the kind of guy who'd see someone drowning 20 feet out, throw him a 16-foot rope, and shout, "I've met you more than halfway."

June 17, 2018       Permalink

FATHER'S DAY – AT 12:08 P.M. ET:  Happy Father's Day to all fathers.  Now, of course, we must be chic and modern, and agree that we are useless and superfluous, and the butt of legitimate jokes on TV sitcoms.

I propose a solution to our sorry state.   Promise me that by midnight today you will make up a powerful list of grievances and anti-father oppressions, which will, tomorrow morning, be turned into a movement.

We will have a million-daddy march.  We will wear silly hats.

We will appear before Congressional committees to outline our resentments, our horror at microaggressions like, "So's your old man."

We will form academic departments.  The Department of Dad Studies.  We will demand that Hollywood filmmakers replace the damsel in distress with the dad in the doghouse.

We shall overcome.

So make this a Father's Day filled with anger toward a society that forces us to drive the car while everyone else is having ice cream and letting it drip over our new leather seats.  Can you just imagine a world free of that?

Oh, and make sure you get out and clean the barbecue.

June 17,  2018     Permalink