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NOVEMBER 27,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET: 

OH, HOW WE'LL MISS HIM – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Keith Olbermann, the anti-Trump video blogger, announced on Monday that he is retiring from political commentary.  The former MSNBC host made the announcement during the final episode of “The Resistance,” a political show sponsored by GQ that airs on Youtube.  “No illness, no scandal, no firing. Just, I’ve said what I’ve had to say. It was as obvious as I made it seem,” said Olbermann.  In the wind-up to his announcement, Olbermann claimed that it is all but inevitable that Trump will either be removed from office or resign from the White House. He asserted that the Republican be impeached over the Russia investigation or forced by Republicans to leave office.  America will not be the same without him.  Interpret that any way you wish.

A GOOD GUY – FROM FOX:   Actor Denzel Washington stressed the prison system was not to blame for crime in black communities, stressing the importance of properly raising children at home, during his tour promoting his new movie at an advanced screening last week.  “It starts in the home,” the two-time Oscar-winner told The Grio. “If the father is not in the home, the boy will find a father in the streets. I saw it in my generation and every generation before me, and every one since.”  “If the streets raise you, then the judge becomes your mother and prison becomes your home,” 62-year-old Washington added.  Well said, Denzel.  I hope the black establishment doesn't shut him down.

DUMB – FROM TIMES OF ISRAEL:  The New York Times on Monday responded to accusations that it was normalizing neo-Nazis in a Saturday article, saying it regretted the degree to which it caused offense.  A story published in the Gray Lady describing Dayton-area neo-Nazi Tony Hovater as “polite and low-key,” with “Midwestern manners [that] would please anyone’s mother,” kicked up an internet storm over the weekend, with even writer Richard Fausset admitting that his piece was lacking.  And no one at The Times noticed how offensive the piece was?  That's the remarkable thing here.

November 27, 2017       Permalink

DRIP DRIP DRIP – AT 8:48 P.M. ET:  The ratings are now all in for the NFL's Thanksgiving contests, and they are not good.   The league is experiencing a steady drip drip drip, thanks in part to its botched handling of protests by some players, who've shown disrespect for the national anthem by "taking a knee" as it's being performed.

League officials have let the protests get out of hand, and viewers clearly don't like what they're seeing.  In addition, the league's casual handling of injuries to football player,s and the clearly demonstrated dangers of the sport, has not gone down well with fans.  From the Washington Times:

For most, watching the NFL on Thanksgiving is the same as eating turkey on the holiday — you can’t go without it. This year, that might have changed.

NFL ratings were down on Thanksgiving, according to Sports Illustrated’s Peter King and Pro Football Talk.

The early game, a matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings, saw its ratings fall 12.3 percent compared to last year’s Lions-Vikings game. The number is also down 7.3 from the Eagles-Lions in 2015. But the Vikings-Lions still drew an 11.3 rating.

The next game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Chargers saw the biggest drop-off in one year. Cowboys-Chargers drew a 12.4 rating, but it was down nearly 20 percent from last year’s Redskins-Cowboys game.

Speaking of the Redskins, Sunday’s night snoozer with the New York Giants grabbed a 9.7 rating, down 10 percent — and nearly 34 percent from 2015.

Lower ratings have plagued the NFL all season long.

COMMENT:  This can't go on if the NFL expects to maintain its standing.  Football largely replaced baseball as the national pastime, but that process may now be moving in reverse.  Baseball is a relatively safe game, and its players have not decided to become politicians.

Another factor must be mentioned, although it is delicate.  Football is becoming the black game, and baseball is becoming the white game.  Some 70 percent of NFL players are African-American.  Meanwhile, black representation in baseball is declining.  Are non-blacks being driven away from football by racial division, symbolized by "taking a knee"?  I don't know, but we'll have to face that reality.

We may be watching the death of a professional sport?

November 27, 2017       Permalink

FRANKEN WOBBLY – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  Senator Al Franken of Minnesota returns to work today, facing a series of series sexual harassment allegations.  He refuses to resign, but the people of his state are turning against him.  He's up for re-election in 2020, so he has time to repair the damage, if it can be repaired.  From The Hill: 

Just 22 percent of Minnesotans in a new survey say Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) should stay in office.
A KSTP/SurveyUSA poll finds in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against Franken, only 22 percent of Minnesotans think he should remain in his post, compared to 33 percent who say he should resign.

Another 36 percent think he should wait to see what comes from a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into his behavior.

Of Republicans surveyed, only 12 percent think Franken should remain in office, compared to 61 percent who say he should resign.

A larger percentage of the polled Democrats think Franken should stay, with 34 percent saying he should remain in office and 14 percent saying he should resign. Forty-six percent of Democrats think he should wait for the results of an ethics investigation.

Just 32 percent of respondents say Franken can be an "effective" senator if he remains in office.

Another 37 percent say he would be an "ineffective" senator and 32 percent aren't sure.

Franken's approval rating in Minnesota has also dropped. Thirty-six percent of respondents approve of the job Franken is doing, compared with 53 percent who approved of the Minnesota Democrat in November 2016.

COMMENT:   The hunt is on, and many are anticipating other charges against Washington bigs.  One effect of all this is to neutralize the Democratic Party's assertion that it is the party of women.  There's evidence a-building that plenty of high Democrats participated in, or covered up, sexual abuse in Congress over the years.

Some may have committed felonies.  There are serious, credible charges that Congressman John Conyers, who has just stepped aside temporarily as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, used federal funds to pay off women who knew too much about him.

The walls of hypocrisy are crumbling. 

November 27, 2017       Permalink

MOMENTOUS WEEK – AT 11:38 A.M. ET:  It's holiday time, when things usually slow down in Washington, but not this year, and not this week.  The GOP Senate tax-cut bill is up for a vote.  If all goes well, it will pass, and the House and Senate will then meet to reconcile their two versions of tax reform, the two houses will pass that, the president will sign, and...if all goes well.  From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Monday changes to the Republican tax bill are coming, as he looks to win over holdout GOP senators in an effort to pass the package by the end of the year.

In a morning tweet, the president said, "With just a few changes, some mathematical, the middle class and job producers can get even more in actual dollars and savings."

Trump is suggesting openness to making unspecified changes to the way millions of "pass-through" businesses are taxed, a sticking point for some lawmakers.

Trump and Republicans have set as a vital political goal passage of tax overhaul legislation by the end of the year. The House recently passed a $1.5 trillion bill. Senate GOP leaders hope to muscle their bill through this week. The package blends a sharp reduction in top corporate and business tax rates with more modest relief for individuals.

Trump was set to meet Monday afternoon with five members of the Senate Finance Committee who are on board with the GOP plan. He will travel to Capitol Hill Tuesday to personally lobby Republican senators.

COMMENT:  It's far from a done deal.  There are still enough Republican holdouts to sink the bill in the Senate.  And the president has made enemies where he should have made friends.  There will be heavy negotiating this week.  We should know within a week or so whether the Republican senators can unite and get the Senate version through a vote.

November 27,  2017     Permalink

NOVEMBER 26,  2017

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

EARLY WARNING – FROM FOX:   A drone pilot was arrested on Sunday for allegedly flying a drone over two football stadiums in California, prompting an investigation by federal, state and local law enforcement.  The suspect, who was not immediately identified, used a drone to distribute anti-media leaflets over NFL crowds during the game between the 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.  "If they dropping leaflets, they can drop anything really if you think about it and it's kind of scary to think that someone can just fly something over during the game and nobody can really stop it," Ariana Rivera, a 49ers fan, told local KGO-TV station.   A common-sense warning.  Back in the early 70s there was a book and movie called "Black Sunday," about a commercial blimp attacking a football stadium.  Drones are far easier to use than blimps, and even a small drone can pack a serious explosive charge.

VULGARITY – FROM DAILY MAIL:   An Indiana nurse is under investigation after claiming white women raise sons that tend to be 'killers, 'rapists' and 'terrorists.'  The woman, who is being identified as Indiana University Health employee Taiyesha Baker according to Fox 59, tweeted about boys being the 'detriment to society'.  The tweet came from an account named 'Night Nurse' which has been linked back to Baker.  It read: 'Every white woman raises a detriment to society when they raise a son. Someone with the HIGHEST propensity to be a terrorist, rapist, racist, killer, and domestic violence all star.' 'Historically every son you had should be sacrificed to the wolves. B****.'   The explicit and angry rant isn't being taken lightly given it is one of the largest hospital systems in the nation.  We understand that the "nurse" isn't being allowed near patients.  This is one of a number of recent incidents featuring extreme anti-white hatred.  No hatred is acceptable.   How did this woman get a job in the first place?  Isn't there some kind of background check.

ONCE A GIANT – FROM CNN:   Time magazine is about to have new owners -- including the billionaire Koch brothers.  Media company Meredith (MDP) announced Sunday that it has agreed to buy the 95-year-old magazine's publisher, Time Inc., for $2.8 billion.  Acquiring the legendary magazine business gives Meredith control of dozens of other big titles such as People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Entertainment Weekly. Meredith already publishes several top magazines, including Parents, Shape and Better Homes & Gardens.  The two media companies are worth roughly the same on the stock market. To finance the deal, Iowa-based Meredith is taking on some serious debt, borrowing about $3.6 billion from an assortment of lenders.  It also plans to sell a sizable chunk of the combined business -- $650 million worth -- to a company owned by Charles and David Koch. The Koch brothers are mega-donors to the Republican party and conservative causes.  A sad path for TIME, once the nation's leading newsmagazine.  I'll bet most of the millennial generation has never heard of it. 

November 26, 2017       Permalink

CONYERS STEPS ASIDE – AT 1:14 P.M. ET:   One of the most powerful Democrats in Congress has stepped aside in the face of major sexual harassment allegations, only hours after daffy Nancy Pelosi defended him.  From Fox: 

Michigan Rep. John Conyers on Sunday stepped aside as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, but again denied recent allegations of sexual and inappropriate conduct.

“In light of the attention drawn by recent allegations made against me, I have notified the Democratic leader of my request to step aside as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee during the investigation of these matters,” Conyers said in a statement.

The 88-year-old Conyers, starting last week, was hit with several allegations of misconduct while in Congress that are now being investigated by the House Ethics Committee.

The news website BuzzFeed reported Monday that Conyers' office paid a woman more than $27,000 under a confidentiality agreement to settle a complaint in 2015 that she was fired from his Washington staff because she rejected his sexual advances.

The ethics committee announced the following day that it had begun an investigation into Conyers, after receiving allegations of sexual harassment and age discrimination involving staff members and about the congressman using "official resources for impermissible personal purposes."

COMMENT:  He is entitled to his day in court, and in the court of public opinion.  But the charges are very specific, and involve specific amounts of money changing hands.

Conyers is a giant in the House of Representatives.  He is the longest-serving member currently in the House, and is the unofficial dean of the Congressional Black Caucus.  The big fish are being reeled in.

November 26, 2017       Permalink

AND THE NUTBAGS CONTINUE COMING – AT 12:22 P.M. ET:  More on schools.   In New York, we have had a flood of certified crazies brought in to teach college students in state-supported institutions.  You cannot make this up.  From the New York Post: 

A Russian spy, a “sperminator” who’s fathered 29 kids and a radical who revels in the thought of “dead cops.” Meet the esteemed CUNY faculty shaping young minds.

Many of these nutty professors are adjuncts, part-time instructors who are barely vetted and often hired on the fly just days before classes start, sources told The Post.

Some, including Hunter College sociology professor Jessie Daniels, are full-time professors. Daniels ignited a fury on social media last month with tweets about how the white nuclear family “is one of the most powerful forces supporting white supremacy.”

She went on to tweet: “White people: do you own your own home? When you die, where’s the wealth in that house going? If it’s to your children, you’re reproducing [inequality].”

She is still teaching at Hunter’s ­Manhattan campus, where her bio says she is an expert in “the Internet manifestations of racism.”

In September, a tenured lecturer at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn was busted for allegedly teaching “unauthorized courses” on medical procedures, including CPR and sonography, and even selling fake certificates to those who didn’t complete the class.

The brazen prof continued the scheme even after college officials told him to stop, authorities allege.

In August, the president of John Jay College said she was “shocked” by the hate spewed by a member of her own faculty — adjunct economics professor Michael Isaacson, who tweeted, “Some of y’all might think it sucks being an anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops.”

COMMENT:   Read more.  Is this all a coincidence, or is it a reflection of the low standards imposed on our schools by social justice warriors, who care only what group the instructor comes from?  You know the answer.

November 26, 2017       Permalink 

THE WRECKAGE OF OUR SCHOOLS – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  Schools are deteriorating.  Many teachers feel themselves at physical risk.  But school administrators fear cracking down on violent students because of edicts handed down by the Obama administration.  From College Fix: 

The bane of “racial proportionality,” which in many ways personified the Obama administration, continues to burden school districts across the country.

Over the last decade, school officials have loosened the “discipline grip,” so to speak, out of fear their schools’ racial percentages may not be viewed as “correct” by government bureaucrats.
Ironically, it’s that very reliable Democratic voting bloc — teachers — which have borne the brunt of this slackening, which no doubt explains why even they frowned upon the previous Department of Education’s race-based “discipline” measures.

Take a recent story from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: City schools have lost almost four dozen teachers since July due to what they deem as “an unprecedented level of misbehavior among children”:

Some of the worst behavior has come from some of the district’s youngest students. Amanda Sheaffer, a first-grade teacher in the district for four years, described the bad behavior she has seen.

“I have been hit, I have been kicked, I have been restrained from behind where I’ve been unable to move my arms,” she said. “It really throws off the whole day. I mean, you have an incident happen and you have to do a room clear, get all the students out, and then after that you have to take the time to do the write-up, and you have to make sure security comes and gets the kids.”

In response, the district said (politically correctly) that “urban education is fraught with challenges, opportunities and experiences.”

COMMENT:  Please read the entire thing.  It is a warning about political correctness and the power of government to enforce it.

It also tells us why the reforms being instituted by Betsy DeVos at the Department of Education are so important.

November 26,  2017     Permalink