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MARCH 14,  2018

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

OH PLEASE – FROM PJ MEDIA:  Ava DuVernay, a black activist who directed a whole movie arguing that mass incarceration (a multi-racial problem) is a continuation of race-based slavery, suggested that racism explains why her latest movie, "A Wrinkle in Time," got bad reviews.  DuVernay gave a back-handed compliment to Vulture's Kyle Buchanan, who wrote about the "subtle, resonant" theme of the black main character's insecurity about her hair. "You were the only Caucasian journalist of any gender to see it, understand it and seriously ask me about it. Appreciate the chat, the sensitivity and the writing," the director tweeted.  This is the same person who directed "Selma," and twisted the history to play down or ignore white contributions to the civil rights movement, even though those contributions made the Civil Rights Acts possible.  Not to be trusted.

DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  Saying “God bless you” after someone sneezes is listed as a microaggression on a lengthy “anti-oppression” guide posted online by Simmons College.
“This guide is intended to provide some general information about anti-oppression, diversity, and inclusion as well as information and resources for the social justice issues key to the Simmons College community,” it states, adding “this guide is by no means exhaustive.”  Yet it includes hyperlinks to more than 100 resources, such as articles and videos, and boasts eight different subsections: anti-oppression, anti-racism, anti-transmisia, anti-ableism, anti-Islamomisia, anti-sanism, anti-queermisia and social justice zines.  The guide’s authors explain that they replaced the typical suffix “phobia,” such as Islamophobia, with the term “misia,” because the term “phobia” is offensive to people with phobias.   I wonder if parents think this is worth
$50,000 a year...or more.

YOU GO LEFT, YOU GO DOWN – FROM FOX:  In a major embarrassment for NBC anchor Lester Holt, ABC's “World News Tonight” soundly defeated Holt’s “Nightly News” in the ratings last week, scoring victories in both the desirable demographic of adults age 25-54 and in total viewers.   NBC “Nightly News” has been the perennial ratings champ over the last two decades, but that lead is now gravely endangered following Holt’s disastrous trip to North Korea -- where he appeared to have been duped by regime propagandists -- and also following his controversial moderation of a presidential debate in the fall of 2016 where some critics said he behaved in an antagonistic fashion toward Donald Trump. “It’s a full scale fiasco. They're in panic mode,” an NBC insider, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, told Fox News about executives at the network.  Just give us a fair news report, journalists, and you'll see things improve.  But fairness is not what you're about, is it?

March 14, 2018       Permalink

TROUBLE ALREADY – AT 2:52 P.M. ET:  President Trump has nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state, and CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to be director.  It was expected early that Haspel's nomination might face resistance because she was involved in "enhanced interrogation techniques" during the Iraq War.  But Pompeo is also facing some unexpected trouble.  From The Hill: 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on Wednesday he would oppose President Trump's nominations of CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of State and CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to lead the spy agency.

Paul said that he will oppose the nominations and "do everything I can to block" them.

"My announcement today is that I will oppose both Pompeo's nomination and Haspel's nomination," Paul said.

Paul is the first Republican to come out against the two nominations, which were announced by Trump on Tuesday. Last year, he was the only Republican to vote against Pompeo for CIA director.

The senator pointed to his previous statement that Pompeo doesn't believe "enhanced interrogation techniques" to be torture, as well as his support for the Iraq War, in explaining his opposition. 

"I'm perplexed by the nomination of people who love the Iraq War so much that they would advocate for a war with Iran next. I think it goes against most of the things President Trump campaigned on," he said. 

Paul said he is opposing Haspel due to her involvement in the enhanced interrogation program during the George W. Bush administration. He said she showed "joyful glee at someone who is being tortured." 

"I find it just amazing that anyone would consider having this woman at the head of the CIA," Paul said. 

And he's a Republican, we think.  Democrats, even those who voted to confirm Mike Pompeo for CIA director, are now suddenly having second thoughts about him.  Or, the leftist party establishment is ordering that they have second thoughts.  Several senators are now saying that they're "reconsidering" their past romance with Mike.

I suspect Pompeo will pull through, possibly with a few Dem votes.  Haspel will be a more difficult run,.

March 14, 2018       Permalink

THE STUDENTS ARE MARCHING – AT 12:40 P.M. ET:   Turn on your TV sets and you'll see joyous journalists covering today's student march against guns.  Determined little faces are pouring out of schools throughout the country, with some students even going to Washington.

Already, equally determined little faces in the admissions offices of some of our "leading" universities are assuring these worthies that, if they're disciplined for leaving school because of an unauthorized absence, it won't be held against them when they apply for admission.  Why follow rules when liberal politics are being pursued?

Once again we'll be told that we must, in order to be worthy of living, "believe the children."

One of the best lessons I learned in real journalism is always to be skeptical of children.  They're children.  Unformed.  Vastly inexperienced, and immature in an increasingly immature nation.  Student movements usually don't end well.  The student movement against the war in Vietnam was manipulated by far-left groups loyal to the North Vietnamese cause.  The North Vietnamese have openly admitted that.  Their "movement" contributed to the victory of a totalitarian regime, and the crushing of any hopes for democracy in South Vietnam.  But you may be sure that the "student movement" simply moved on to another cause.  People of Vietnam?  That's yesterday's march.  From Fox: 

Thousands of students walked out of classrooms nationwide Wednesday to protest gun violence and call for new gun control measures on the one-month anniversary of the Parkland school shooting that left 17 dead and sparked a grassroots wave of activism.

From Maine to Hawaii, students left school to demonstrate against gun violence in what could be the biggest display yet of the student activism that has emerged in response to last month's massacre at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

In nearly 3,000 reported protests nationwide, students from the elementary to college level took up the call in a variety of ways. Some took part in roadside rallies to honor shooting victims and protest violence. Others held demonstrations in school gyms or on football fields. In Massachusetts and Georgia and Ohio, students went to the statehouse to lobby for new gun regulations.

The coordinated walkouts were loosely organized by Empower, the youth wing of the Women's March, which brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to Washington, D.C., last year. The group urged students to leave class at 10 a.m. local time for 17 minutes -- one minute for each victim in the Florida shooting -- and suggested demands for lawmakers, including an assault weapons ban and mandatory background checks for all gun sales.

COMMENT:  Gun violence is a serious subject.  I'd like to see it taken seriously by the marchers.  Some of the proposals, like increased background checks, are reasonable, but I doubt if a single life will be saved by today's march.  This is a subject that requires real study, with real statistics, and common-sense answers.

And the first answer has little to do with gun control.  It has to do with making sure that schools have at least the same level of security as jewelry stores.  Mass shootings at schools succeed when there is no defense for students.  We would not think of having a school without fire alarms and fire drills.  Yet we leave schools undefended, even declaring some of them "gun free zones," an open invitation to a shooter.

A serious approach to gun violence would begin with an understanding that the object of public service is to serve the public, not to feel good about ourselves or go on marches.  The real work here, as always, will be done by mature adults who devise workable solutions that actually have an effect. 

It will also take brave reporting by disciplined journalists who have the capacity to report something other than the cries of a mob, even a well-meaning mob of kids.

March 14,  2018     Permalink

PENNSYLVANIA – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  Sorry for our late start.  I've been trying to get all the background I could about last night's special Congressional election in Pennsylvania.

Oh, to begin.  This wasn't emphasized enough in the "reporting," but whoever won last night, and there is still no official winner, will only serve briefly.  The election was held to fill the unexpired term of a resigned congressman.  There'll be another one in November, but the 18th Congressional District won't exist.  Due to redistricting, last night's winner will be running in a newly formed district, probably more Democratic and liberal.

Conor Lamb, the Democrat, is claiming victory.  An excellent candidate, he is ahead in the count by, maybe, two or three tenths of a point.  Absentee ballots are still to be counted.  Chances are, he will squeeze through, and run again in November.

The "journalists" of CNN are having a field day.  John King, who normally sounds marginally sober, was already speaking of a "blue wave," and actually used the Senate race in Alabama as an example.  In that case, the Republicans, in a Republican state, worked hard to lose an election by putting up Judge Roy Moore, a toxic candidate with a questionable background.  The Democrats put up a candidate who ran far to the right and sounded like a typical Republican. 

There may well be a blue wave in November, but it didn't begin last night in Pennsylvania, and it certainly didn't begin in the oddball Senate race in Alabama.

March 14,  2018     Permalink

MARCH 13,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE:

LAMB CLAIMS VICTORY – FROM THE HILL:  CANONSBURG, PA — Democrat Conor Lamb declared victory early Wednesday morning in his razor-tight bid for a Pittsburgh-area House special election, although the race hasn't yet been called.  The seat, which voted for President Trump in 2016 by a 20-point margin, was once considered an easy win for Republicans. But Lamb currently leads Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone by 579 ballots, with some absentee ballots outstanding.   "It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. You did it," Lamb told supporters at his election night party shortly before 1 a.m.,  after he was introduced as "congressman-elect."  "We followed what I learned in the Marines — leave no one behind. We went everywhere, we talked to everyone, we invited everyone in."   He ran as a pro-gun, I'm not Nancy Pelosi, Democrat.  Let's see if he can hold on to that identity.

A BRIGHT SPOT FOR CAMPUS CONSERVATIVES – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  A University of Colorado Boulder program that brings a token conservative scholar to campus each year is expanding, with organizers citing its popularity with both right- and left-leaning students and well-respected scholars as big reasons for its growth.  For the past five years, the public university’s Conservative Thought and Policy Program has brought one visiting scholar to campus each year. For the 2018-19 school year, it will grow to include two scholars.  The growth stems from an increase in the amount of strong candidates applying for the position, the program’s strong financial footing, and its popularity and success so far, CU Boulder professor Robert Pasnau told The College Fix.   That's terrific.  A conservative program done right.  It should be expanded to other campuses.

March 13,   2018       Permalink

PENNSYLVANIA  – AT 11:45 P.M. ET:  We are obviously following very closely the race in the 18th C.D. in western Pennsylvania. 

With 99% of the ballots counted, Democrat Conor Lamb leads Republican Rick Saccone by four tenths of one percentage point. Almost a dead heat.

Absentee ballots may well decide the race.   Looking at what is still out, we'd have to come to the conclusion that Conor Lamb will probably squeeze through to a very narrow victory.  I was just surfing the news services, and that seems to be the conventional view. 

Donald Trump carried the district by about 20 points in 2016, so it was widely expected in some circles that Republican Saccone would coast to a comfortable victory.  But wait a minute.  Not so fast.  The 18th is actually a Democratic district, but made up heavily of Reagan Democrats, the kind who've believed, over the years, that the national Democratic Party has abandoned them.  They like Trump and favor his policies.

But the GOP put up the lackluster Saccone, who is kind of an old-fashioned Republican with little popular appeal.  His magnetism might be able to pick up a hairpin, but little else. By contrast, the Dems ran a young, dynamic, pro-gun, anti-Pelosi military veteran who often sounded more Republican than Democrat.  Lamb didn't even acknowledge the national party.  He also had union support, which was crucial.  He connected with the unions, which were once the backbone of the Democratic Party. 

So I wouldn't read too much into this, except that the result is a reminder of how tough it will be for the GOP to retain control of the House this November.  The party that does not control the presidency normally makes gains in the first midyear election following the election of the president.   And the media will be the Democrats' cheerleading squad.

March 13,  2018     Permalink     

THE LEVEL OF OUR POLITICS – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  Just read this.  For some Americans, this is a legitimate political discussion.  From bizpacreview: 

Van Jones, the once self-avowed communist, begged Oprah Winfrey to help him deal with President Donald Trump.

Literally begged.

Oprah, who is playing coy about a possible presidential run, continues to play hard to get, but that didn’t stop Jones from gushing all over her in his new Sunday night show on CNN as he whined about how bad things are under President Trump.

“We had you. We had the Obamas in the White House. Even on a bad day, you had a North Star,” he told his guest. “You had some hope. And then it was like the universe looked just said, ‘Psych!,’ and threw us in the toilet and closed the lid and now we’re just stuck in this crazy situation, swirling.”

“We have each other,” Winfrey reassured the liberal host, saying everybody is feeding on the “hysteria and negativity.”

“You got to stay in the light,” she said in her best Obama-like presidential posture.

“Do not give your energy to the other side,” Oprah counseled Jones while channeling her inner Zen.

“Do not spend all your time talking about your opponents. Do not give your energy to that which you really don’t believe in.”

“But help us, though!” Jones begged.

He rambled on about how progressives are  saying “we’re getting bullied” by “Nazis” and “bigots” and “we’re tired of taking the high road.”

Yes, Jones said this with a straight face.

COMMENT:  That is on the intellectual level of an early adolescent.  And maybe we're looking at the future of the Democratic Party, once the party of Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy. 

March 13, 2018       Permalink

MAJOR NEWS – TILLERSON OUT – AT 9:41 A.M. ET:  President Trump has discharged (read fired, decapitated, shafted) Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, the appointment subject to Senate confirmation.

The president, speaking with reporters a short time ago, was forthright in saying there were simply areas of disagreement between him and Tillerson.  Nothing personal, as they say.  There is no reason to doubt the president's words.  We've been hearing this for months.

Nor is it uncommon for presidents to wish to make changes in their initial Cabinets and in high White House positions.  Often, a new president doesn't actually know his appointees personally, but knows of them by reputation and recommendation. 

Mike Pompeo is an outstanding choice for State.  He graduated first in his class in 1986 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and later graduated from the Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.  He is considered an intellectual heavyweight.  As a Republican congressman from Kansas, the post he held before becoming CIA director, he was a GOP spokesman on foreign- and defense policy.

Replacing Pompeo as head of the CIA, will be, subject to Senate Confirmation, Deputy Director Gina Haspel.  She will, if confirmed, be the first woman to hold the job.  Her confirmation may be difficult, or at least controversial.  As a CIA operative, she was involved in "enhanced interrogation techniques," which some consider torture.  CBS reports that she "ran a CIA prison in Thailand where terror suspects were waterboarded — a harsh interrogation technique President Donald Trump has supported."

On the other hand, she is considered an outstanding intelligence officer.  From her official CIA public resumé:  "Ms. Haspel is a career intelligence officer, having joined the CIA in 1985. She has extensive overseas experience and served as Chief of Station in several of her assignments. In Washington, she has held numerous senior leadership positions, including as Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action, and Chief of Staff for the Director of the National Clandestine Service.

"Ms. Haspel is the recipient of numerous awards including the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism; the Donovan Award; the Intelligence Medal of Merit; and the Presidential Rank Award, the most prestigious award in the federal civil service."

We'll have more on these developments as facts come out.  And don't be shocked if this series of changes expands to include others in the administration.

March 13,  2018     Permalink