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MARCH 12,  2017

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

OH – FROM THE HILL:   Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said in an interview Sunday that the Russian ambassador who met with Trump campaign officials also met with “people working in think tanks advising Hillary or advising people working for Hillary.”  “Well, if you look at some people connected with Hillary Clinton during her campaign, you would probably see that he had lots of meetings of that kind,” Dmitry Peskov told CNN “GPS” host Fareed Zakaria. “There are lots of specialists in politology, people working in think tanks advising Hillary or advising people working for Hillary.”  Peskov said it is the job of Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to meet with officials on both sides to talk about “bilateral relations.”  This won't make a bit of difference to the anti-Trump asylum.  He was influenced by the Russians, and that's the line.  Period.

THE LEFT HAS DISCOVERED...TELEVISION! – FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:   There is a new safe space for liberals in the age of President Trump: the television set.  Left-leaning MSNBC, after flailing at the end of the Obama years, has edged CNN in prime time. Stephen Colbert’s openly anti-Trump “Late Show” is beating Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight” for the first time. Bill Maher’s HBO flock has grown nearly 50 percent since last year’s presidential primaries, and “The Daily Show” has registered its best ratings since Jon Stewart left in 2015.  Traditional television, a medium considered so last century, has watched audiences drift away for the better part of a decade. Now rattled liberals are surging back, seeking catharsis, solidarity and relief.  And they will get it.  One Oscar show should satisfy them for a year.  It confirms once again that the left is reactionary.  They're even flocking to an old medium.  At least sitting on a couch will keep them out of trouble.

A DESERVED HONOR – FROM FOX:   Some retired Marines in California want the Navy to name a warship for the photographer behind the iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising photo.  Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo shows Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi on the Japanese island on Feb. 23, 1945. The picture became the model for the Iwo Jima Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, known officially as the Marine Corps War Memorial.  The San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday that the campaign to honor Rosenthal includes an online petition that has gathered more than 1,300 signatures.  “Joe Rosenthal took one of the greatest photographs in history, and yet he has been bypassed by history,” campaign organizer Tom Graves told the paper.  Graves belongs to the Marine Corps Correspondents Association in San Francisco and wants to collect thousands of more names before submitting them to the Navy.  It would be appropriate, as the Iwo Jima photo has come to symbolize the Marine Corps.  Also, Rosenthal took the risks of a combat photographer, a number of whom were killed in World War II and subsequent wars.  Honoring him would honor them.

March 12, 2017       Permalink

THE TRUMP ECONOMY – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 1:18 P.M. ET:  Like him or loathe him, there's really no doubt that there's a "Trump effect" that's boosting the American economy dramatically.  Our quote of the day from American Greatness: 

It’s the economy, stupid. We’ve heard the phrase so many times over the past 25 years that it has descended into cliché if not outright parody. But it’s been repeated so often because it highlights a basic truth about politics: jobs matter. And since the election, the job growth has been extraordinary.

It’s been so strong that it prompted Jamie Dimon, president and CEO of Chase, the nation’s largest bank, a registered Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter, to back President Trump’s economic agenda. Dimon declared it has “woken up the animal spirits” in the United States. His comments came in the midst of a spate of good economic news released this week.

Trump himself tweeted, “Great Again: +235,000” after the Labor Department reported a higher than expected 235,000 new jobs were created in February. This came on the heels of a report earlier in the week from ADP and Moody’s Analytics showing 298,000 new private sector jobs in the same month. Better yet, the Labor Department report showed strong wage growth and that 340,000 workers who sensed better prospects came off the sidelines and re-entered the workforce. This addresses a key critique of the weak Obama era recovery after the 2008 financial panic: namely, that the low reported unemployment rate was misleading because of the large number of working age Americans who stopped looking for work and were therefore not counted in official government unemployment statistics.

COMMENT:  If Trump can keep this going, add a needed tax cut, build our defenses and run a decent foreign policy, he can become, to use Henry Kissinger's term, a "substantial" president.  He could also force the modern Democratic Party deeper into the shadows and even drive it out of existence, to be replaced by a new, more responsible liberal party.

Pipe dreams?  I'm not so sure. 

March 12, 2017        Permalink

REAL ESTATE NEWS – AT 12:51 P.M. ET:   There is news about future places to move.  From Britain's Independent: 

Thousands of people could be living in floating space colonies orbiting the Earth in 20 years’ time, according to the head of a project by the British Interplanetary Society (BIS).

And, while life in space might sound unappealing to some, Jerry Stone believe it could actually be healthier than planet Earth, enabling people to live longer and, eventually, grow taller.

Mr Stone, author of the book One Small Step about the moon landings, and other members of the BIS have been updating research carried out in the US in the 1970s into how humans could start living in space in large numbers.

In a speech in Aberdeen as part of British Science Week, Mr Stone will claim humanity is now close to the point where such colonies could be built using material taken from the Moon and asteroids.

COMMENT:  Oh, do I have a list of people I'd like to see living up there.  President Kennedy's space objective was to land a man on the Moon and bring him back safely to Earth.   Urgent Agenda's objective is to send liberals to space colonies and leave them there.  We start with Nancy Pelosi, if she's still around, and she probably will be.  We branch out to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and we scoop up any liberals with zip codes in Manhattan or Beverly Hills.  We reserve a special plot of land in the space colony for Barack Obama, with a bedroom for Valerie Jarrett.

Any other suggestions?

March 12, 2017       Permalink

SOME GOOD NEWS ABOUT EDUCATION – AT 12:16 P.M. ET:  It's very rare, so cherish this piece by George Will.  Frame it.  Send it to friends.  From the Boston Herald: 

TEMPE, Ariz. — Encouraging developments are as welcome as they are rare in colleges and universities that cultivate diversity in everything but thought. Fortunately, state legislatures, alumni and philanthropists are planting little academic platoons that will make campuses less intellectually monochrome. One such, just launched, is Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership.

A primary mission of institutions of higher education should be the transmission of civilization’s intellectual patrimony. With the permeation of academia by progressivism, however, the mission increasingly is liberation from this patrimony in order to further progress, understood as movement away from the principles of the American founding. One notable progressive knew better. Something Woodrow Wilson actually got right was that a university should be a “seat of vital memory” and an “organ of recollection,” lest we risk “becoming infantile in every generation.”

During the national fragmentation of 1861, Abraham Lincoln said that “the better angels of our nature” would be summoned by “the mystic chords of memory.” But democratic nations, which rest on the shiftable sand of opinion, are forgetful, so memory needs to be nurtured. In his novel “Mr. Sammler’s Planet,” Saul Bellow wrote:

“It is sometimes necessary to repeat what all know. All mapmakers should place the Mississippi in the same location, and avoid originality. It may be boring, but one has to know where he is. We cannot have the Mississippi flowing toward the Rockies for a change.”

Arizona State, in announcing the new school, said:

“The mission of the school will be to introduce students to the great philosophical debates across centuries through classic texts, and to use those texts and debates to prepare them for civic-minded leadership in the future,” said Patrick Kenney, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

COMMENT:  Great idea.  I hope it isn't destroyed by radicals at Arizona State, and they are there in force. 

At one time it was understood that "civics" would be taught to every student in America.  That time is long past.  Now what kids get is a kind of "anti-civics," devoted to, as George Will put it, "liberation" from America's founding.

Maybe we're starting to see some points of light.

March 12,  2017     Permalink

MARCH 11,  2017

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

THE ROGUE GETS EVEN MORE ROGUE – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   The regime of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un tried to sell a specialized material used in the miniaturization process for nuclear warheads, according to U.N. weapons investigators, who are attempting to document the regime’s nuclear weapons program and activities.  North Korean agents tried to sell a form of lithium metal to unnamed international buyers last year, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.  “The U.N. Panel of Experts' report on North Korea provides further evidence that North Korea will stop at nothing to advance its illicit nuclear and missile programs,” said Sen. Cory Gardner, Colorado Republican, who has been instrumental in attempting to highlight Pyongyang’s nuclear proliferation.  Experts believe the fact that North Korea is producing Lithium-6 is proof they are attempting to miniaturize nuclear warheads to place on the ICBMs they have been testing repeatedly over recent months.  They will find plenty of buyers.  And they won't even have to give discounts.

THE CHINESE WEIGH IN – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES – It may be unanimous: China has officially declared that the U.S. media were in the tank for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.  The finding was included in a lengthy report by the Communist government in Beijing listing human rights and civil liberties violations by the United States in 2016 — a direct response to the March 3 release of the State Department’s annual survey of human rights violations in China and around the world.  In the section titled “Political Rights Undermined,” the Chinese government document contends that “U.S. media published a lot of biased reports and commentaries during the 2016 election, fully demonstrating their failure in staying objective or impartial.”  American press outlets “clearly chose their side in covering the election,” the survey continues. “Among the top 100 newspapers based on circulation, 57 endorsed the Democratic nominee while 2 the Republican.”  Well, they got that right. Given the state of journalism, I'm surprised that as many as two papers went Republican.

MOMENTOUS QUESTION – FROM THE POLITICO:   It wouldn’t be the first time that President Donald Trump declined an invitation but showed up anyway.  The White House Correspondents’ Association is preparing for the possibility that the president will reconsider his terse Tweet from late February announcing that he wasn’t coming to their annual dinner on April 29.  “If President Trump changes his mind, he is welcome to attend the dinner,” association President Jeff Mason said in an email, though he declined to comment further on their preparations.  Trump’s decision to skip the dinner came in the midst of his escalating feud with many in the media, who he has deemed “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people.” Washington reporters are not counting on Trump’s reversal, but the upheaval has delayed announcements about how the association plans to cope with the first dinner in 36 years without the commander-in-chief.  I'd imagine there might be some negotiations over this.  The president has a legitimate concern over the taste level of some of the "entertainers" hired for these dinners.  In particular, there can be concern over "jokes" directed at Melania or Ivanka. 

March 11, 2017       Permalink

AND IN THE REAL WORLD – AT 12:34 P.M. ET:   A number of reports in the last few days say Europe is facing an elevated, and imminent, terror threat.  From Fox: 

Police ordered a shopping mall in the western German city of Essen not to open Saturday after receiving credible tips of an imminent attack.

The shopping center and the adjacent parking lot stayed closed as about a hundred police officers positioned themselves around the compound to make sure nobody could enter the mall. Several officers scoured the inside of the building to bring out early morning cleaning staff.

"As police, we are the security authority here and have decided to close the mall," police spokesman Christoph Wickhorst said, adding that they had been tipped off late Friday by other security agencies. He did not want to provide further details because of the ongoing investigation.

The downtown mall at Limbecker Platz square will be closed for the entire day. The mall is one of the biggest in Germany with more than 200 stores, according to the shopping center's website.

In 2016, three people were injured in an attack on a Sikh temple in Essen by radicalized German-born Muslim teenagers.

Germany has been on the edge following a series of attacks in public places over the past year.

COMMENT:  Remember that the terrorists have to be lucky only once.  If anything, the terror threat may get worse in coming years, as terror groups acquire more sophisticated equipment, and refugee streams from the Mideast into Western countries provide new recruits.

March 11, 2017       Permalink

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS? – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:  The age of the driverless vehicle is upon us.  But if you were going 65 mph in a driverless car, and the car's computer system was suddenly hacked, what would you do?  From the San Francisco Chronicle: 

Self-driving cars with no human behind the wheel — or, for that matter, any steering wheel at all — may soon appear on California’s public roads, under regulations state officials proposed Friday.

The rules represent a delicate balance, trying to ensure the safety of a new technology many people don’t trust while avoiding tough restrictions that could send car companies fleeing to other states.

Until now, California has required all 27 companies testing autonomous cars in the state to have someone in the driver’s seat, ready to take over, when testing on public roads. And those vehicles needed to have steering wheels and brake pedals, even if some self-driving car engineers didn’t consider them necessary.

Both of those requirements would disappear under the new regulations proposed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Instead, automakers would need to certify to the state that their own testing — either on closed tracks or through computer modeling — shows the cars are ready to operate on public roads with no one behind the wheel. Tests with no driver would require an operator monitoring the car, ready to steer via remote control if necessary.

COMMENT:  A remote operator, monitoring the car?  I wonder how many naps that operator might take?  Does the remote operator have lunch?  Go on coffee breaks?   Have a little iPad for entertainment?  How many cars is he monitoring? 

Maybe it's the safest system ever developed.  I don't know.   But I want a lot more information before piling into a car without a driver.  Besides, if a car doesn't have a driver, who do other cars yell at?

March 11, 2017       Permalink

THE RISING ECONOMY – AT 11:33 A.M. ET:  There is a Trump effect.  As readers know, I didn't support Trump for the nomination, and was at best lukewarm about his candidacy.  But there is clearly a Trump effect on the economy, and it is good.  And we are happy to report it.  From IBD:

Growth: For eight years, economic indicators repeatedly came below forecasts. Now, there's been a string of reports — the latest one is on jobs — that have outperformed economist predictions. What's changed, we wonder?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the economy added 235,000 jobs in February, when economists expected 200,000 new jobs. And that comes after January's 227,000 gain, which also beat economists' forecasts by a substantial margin.

That's not all. Other recent indicators have come in better than economists had expected.

Orders for capital goods were higher in December than forecast.

There were supposed to be 5.55 million existing-home sales in January. The actual number was close to 5.7 million — which was the highest level since 2007.

Retail sales in January climbed 0.4%, where economists had predicted they'd advance only 0.1%. At the same time, the Commerce Department revised the December sales increase upward to 1%.

Now, obviously we can't draw any broad conclusions from a few unexpectedly good economic results.

But it's worth pointing out that this is a dramatic change from the Obama years, when about the only thing that you could predict with any degree of accuracy was that the economy would underperform economists' predictions.

And...

Trump's pro-growth agenda marks a dramatic turnaround from the Obama years. And as a direct result, a multitude of surveys have shown a huge increase in optimism among business owners, investors, and the public at large. The National Federation of Independent Business' small business optimism index hit a 12-year high in January. The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index was the highest it's been since October 2004. The Dow has gained nearly 17% since the November elections.

COMMENT:  The election changed the business psychology, and that is showing up in a number of economic areas.  Next up should be tax cuts for the American people.

We look forward to Trump's first real State of the Union message next January.  I want to see some serious gloating.

March 11,  2017     Permalink