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OCTOBER 1,  2017

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

We scrubbed "Short Takes" tonight in order to monitor the horrible mass shooting in Las Vegas. This is being written at 4:45 a.m. ET.

For those of you just awakening, a gunman employing what apparently was a fully automatic weapon (machine gun) opened fire on an outdoor music concert about 10:08 p.m., Las Vegas time.  The gunman was on the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel, and fired down into the concert.

The police report that more than 20 people were killed and more than 100 wounded or injured.  Those numbers will likely increase.

The assailant was killed by a police SWAT team.  It is believed by police that he was the sole shooter.  He is described only as a Las Vegas resident.  Although authorities have his full identity, they are not yet releasing it.  A police spokesman said he was with a female companion, described as a small Asian woman named Marilou Danley.  She is at large, and a hunt for her is underway.  A hunt for two vehicles is also underway.

At this time, police say, they do not know the "belief system" of the dead assailant.  The basic facts point heavily to a well-planned terrorist attack, but that is our speculation. 

We will continue to monitor.

October 1,  2017     Permalink

TRUMP LAYS DOWN THE LAW – AT 1:18 P.M. ET:  Secretary State Tillerson said yesterday that the U.S. has several lines of communication open with the North Koreans.  Now the president is very publicly telling the secretary not to waste his time.   Is the president real, or is this a little bit of the good cop/bad cop routine?  From Fox: 

President Trump on Sunday sounded a war drum over North Korean leader Kim Jong Un refusing to de-escalate his nuclear weapons program, telling Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to stop wasting time negotiating with Kim because the U.S. “will do what needs to be done.”

“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” tweeted Trump, using his nickname for Kim. “Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!"

Trump, a prolific tweeter, has been on a twitter tear this weekend, with nearly two dozen tweets since Saturday morning, most slamming San Juan Puerto Rico Mayor Yulin Cruz, a Democrat, for being critical of the administration’s hurricane response effort on the U.S. island.

On Sunday, Trump returned to Kim and his pursuit of a nuclear arsenal, despite more U.S. and international economic sanctions that reportedly are having a severe impact on the rogue nation’s economy.

Trump and Kim have for months engaged in an escalating war of words, as North Korea appears to be conducting numerous underground nuclear bomb tests and launching intercontinental missiles,in an attempt to land a nuclear warhead on another country.

COMMENT:  Meanwhile, the U.S. is reported to be building its forces in the Korean peninsula area.  My own hunch is that Trump's tough talk is an attempt to add to the sanctions, to make sure the Norks understand that we have military options that we are willing to use.

It might be very good psychological warfare.  We won't know for a time.

October 1, 2017       Permalink

AND TERROR IN CANADA – AT 12:18 P.M. ET:  Despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's multiculturalism and boastful "understanding" of other peoples, Canada is not off the target list.  From Fox:   

A police officer was stabbed and at least four people were injured by a speeding U-Haul truck in events that police in Edmonton, Canada, said were being investigated as acts of terror.

One suspect was in custody, said Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht, adding that police believe the suspect acted alone.

The chaos began outside Commonwealth Stadium, where a Canadian Football League game was being played. Police say a white Chevy Malibu rammed a traffic-control barricade and sent an officer flying.

Knecht said the driver then got out and attacked the officer with a knife. The officer was stabbed multiple times before the suspect fled on foot, the Edmonton Journal reported.

The officer was not critically wounded, the Globe and Mail reported.

A few hours later, a U-Haul van was stopped at an impaired driving check stop and the driver sped off with police in pursuit.

Police say the U-Haul hit and injured four pedestrians before it rolled and the suspect was arrested.

“There were people flying and everything,” witness Kim Anderson told the Edmonton Journal.

“I’m shocked — I just see people flying.” 

Knecht confirmed that an ISIS flag was discovered inside the van, the Edmonton Journal reported.

COMMENT:  Now let me get this right:  An ISIS flag was discovered inside the vehicle, but the politically correct police believe the guy acted alone.

Well, unless ISIS and this guy came up with the exact same flag design, said guy did not act alone.  He was radicalized by someone.  Never believe this "lone wolf" rubbish that gets put out after one of these attacks.  No such thing.  No one gets up in the morning and decides to become a radical Islamist.  He was influenced and taught.

October 1, 2017       Permalink

MORE TERROR IN FRANCE – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  A new attack, this time in Marseilles, kills two.  Of course we must understand that this is Trump's fault.  From AFP:

MARSEILLE, France (AFP) — A suspected Islamist knifeman killed two women at the main train station in the French Mediterranean city of Marseille on Sunday before being shot dead by soldiers patrolling there, local officials and police said.

One of the victims was fatally stabbed while the other had her throat slit by the assailant who is believed to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) at the start of his rampage, a source close to the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Soldiers posted in the station as part of a special force set up to guard vulnerable areas in terror-hit France responded to the stabbings in front of the station and shot the man dead, local officials said.

Armed police were deployed afterwards and the grand and ornate rail terminus in the bustling heart of France’s second-biggest city was evacuated, stopping all train traffic on one of the country’s busiest lines.

“Two victims have been stabbed to death,” regional police chief Olivier de Mazieres told AFP, referring to the attack which occurred at 1:45 pm (1145 GMT).

The latest deaths came with France still on high alert and in a state of emergency following a string of attacks in recent years by extremists linked to the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda.
Since 2015, a total of 239 people have been killed in France by jihadists, according to an AFP count before Sunday’s incident.

COMMENT:  There are some signs that France is waking up to the reality of a society constantly threatened by terror.  But in Western Europe, "waking up" takes a very long time.

October 1,  2017     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 30,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:31 P.M. ET: 

A COACH'S WISDOM – FROM FOX:  Legendary football coach Lou Holtz recalled to "Fox & Friends Weekend" how he told his teams every fall to leave their causes at home.  "The first thing I told the football team every fall, we'll not use our football team to promote any cause, whether it be abortion, gay rights, gun laws," Holtz remembered. "You're not going to bring girlfriends, you aren't going to bring a slogan, you aren't going to bring a cause under our football team."  The National Football League's approval ratings are down again after more players protested the national anthem this week.  Good words from a great coach.

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP – FROM FOX:  A Massachusetts elementary school librarian rejected First Lady Melania Trump's “National Read a Book Day" donation of ten Dr. Seuss books.  Liz Phipps Soeiro, a librarian at a public school in Cambridge, wrote a letter to Trump, informing her that her school would not be keeping the books for their collection. She explained that her school didn’t have a “NEED” for the books and that Dr. Seuss's illustrations are steeped in "racist propaganda, caricatures and harmful stereotypes."  Stephanie Grisham, director of communications for the first lady's office, said in a statement that it's "unfortunate" to turn the gesture of sending young students books into something divisive.  A picture surfaced showing the librarian in a Dr. Seuss costume.  The hypocrisy flows.

REAL CLASS – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Once The Juice is loose, he’ll put the squeeze on TV networks for millions for rights to an exclusive interview, sources close to O.J. Simpson told The Post.  “He’s not talking for free,” a longtime confidant told The Post a few days before Simpson’s expected Monday release from High Desert State Prison near Las Vegas. “It has to be the big one because he’s only going to do it one time and it has to be worth his while.”  The disgraced gridiron great is expected to ask for $3 million to $5 million to sit down with the likes of NBC’s Matt Lauer, Megyn Kelly or Lester Holt; ABC’s Robin Roberts and Michael Strahan; or CBS’ newest “60 Minutes” correspondent Oprah Winfrey, the source said.  If Oprah can get him to admit his guilt, the country might make her president. But I hope nobody pays a cent to this guy.

September 30,  2017     Permalink          

PRESENTING, DIRECT FROM THE SWAMP, THE MUELLER TEAM – AT 2:17 P.M. ET:  The guy investigating the Trump campaign has assembled his team, and a mighty team it is.  And a Democratic Party team it also is.  From ABC:   

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has assembled a team of more than a dozen seasoned prosecutors to probe Russian interference in the 2016 election, including any potential collusion between Russian agents and members of Donald Trump’s campaign.

In addition to a squad of agents from the FBI and the IRS, Mueller has 16 attorneys on staff, a spokesperson for Special Counsel Robert Mueller confirmed to ABC News, but only 14 of them have been identified publicly.

COMMENT:  Please read the story and go down the list.  What stuns us is the number of people on the Mueller team who are contributors to the Democratic Party.  I mean, appearances count.  Don't they? 

If there are indictments, there's no doubt the Trump administration, and the pro-Trump media will start screaming about the Democratic loyalists working for Mueller.  They should be screaming now.

September 30, 2017       Permalink

REX:  WE'RE TALKING TO NORTH KOREA – AT 1:48 P.M. ET:    This may be no news, or may be important.  Hard to tell.  From ABC: 

The Trump administration confirmed Saturday for the first time that it is in direct communication with North Korea's government over its government's escalating missile and nuclear programs.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking off-camera with reporters during his trip to China's capital, acknowledged that the administration is speaking to North Korea "directly, through our own channels."

"We have lines of communication to Pyongyang. We're not in a dark situation, a blackout," he said from the residence of the U.S. ambassador in Beijing. "We can talk to them. We do talk to them."

Tillerson said the Trump administration has "three channels" open with the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The top U.S. diplomat also said that broad sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program "are beginning to have an effect."

COMMENT:  It's always wise to have lines of communication open.  During the Cold War we had a hotline available so the president could speak directly to the Soviet premier, on a moment's notice.

However, I hope that having lines open does not mean more 1) appeasement or 2) kicking the can down the road.  We are in a nuclear and missile crisis with North Korea because its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction was never stopped, despite negotiations that went on for years.  Lines of communication are a tool.  They are not a solution.

September 30, 2017        Permalink

WHO IS THIS NUT? – AT 12:52 P.M. ET:  President Trump is now engaged in a new dispute, this time with the odd mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The island has been hit hard by the recent hurricanes.  Two days ago the mayor praised President Trump for his rescue efforts.  Yesterday, though, she savaged him, saying that the island faced "genocide," and begging for help.

Furious, the president tweeted, probably in a moment of anger, that the mayor is incompetent and that the islanders aren't doing enough in their own behalf.

The press has gone crazy, shades of Katrina, siding with the embattled mayor and trying to make the president, who has acted superbly in the face of these recent storms, look like a meanie.  It won't work.

Who is this mayor, who has suddenly turned against the mayor, probably under orders from the Democratic National Committee?  From Daily Caller: 

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who attacked President Donald Trump for his response to last week’s hurricane in Puerto Rico, previously praised FALN terrorist leader Oscar Lopez Rivera.

Yulin Cruz is a member of Puerto Rico’s Popular Democratic Party that wants the island to remain a U.S. territory. But she sounded more like a member of the island’s Independence Party in a video that surfaced back in January when President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Rivera Lopez...

...“Hello, San Juan. Freedom forOscar Lopez Rivera. Soon he will be with us. We have to thank every Puerto Rican man and woman, who for a long time, many of us who didn’t know Oscar Lopez Rivera. He was fighting the fight,” she said.

“We’re going to give you more details when we welcome this great Puerto Rican patriot in a cause that unites us and to know that, in spite of our differences, we can do big things in this country,” she continued.

Yulin Cruz added, “This great celebration is going to be the streets and it is going to be extraordinarily large, So do come by starting Thursday to celebrate what our hearts scream for. Thanks President Obama. Long live Oscar Lopez Rivera.”

Lopez Rivera was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his involvement in the FALN, a Puerto Rican separatist group that was responsible for more than 100 bombings in the U.S. during the 1970s and 1980s.

COMMENT:  Pretty nice, huh?  And now this fraud is attacking the president, who'll be visiting Puerto Rico on Tuesday, and who has already sent 10,000 emergency workers to the island.

Oh, by the way, Puerto Rico is bankrupt.  Do you see much on that from the media? 

September 30,  2017     Permalink