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OCTOBER 6,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET:

ONE SMALL STEP FOR STUDENTKIND – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:    University of Wisconsin campuses already have the authority to punish students for “disorderly or violent conduct” under state law. But they have apparently been using it sparingly when it comes to disruptions of controversial events.  The UW System Board of Regents approved a so-called three strikes policy Friday that mandates expulsion for students found thrice responsible for “violent or other disorderly misconduct that materially and substantially disrupts the free expression of others,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.  Two findings of responsibility would require suspension. The policy is not specific for a first offense, simply saying “protests and demonstrations that interfere with the rights of others to engage in or listen to expressive activity shall not be permitted and shall be subject to sanction.”   A very good start, at least in theory.  I suspect campuses will make it impossible to find someone guilty of even two offenses.  After all, we must take past oppression into account.

NFL LOSING – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   NFL ticket prices have plummeted in the wake of the uproar over the national anthem protests, dropping for the first time this year below the 2016 season’s prices.  An analysis released Friday by CNBC found that ticket prices during the first three games of the 2017 season enjoyed a 20-40 percent increase over last year, but then skidded in Week 4 and actually dropped by 2 percent in Week 5.  The timing coincides with the uproar following President Trump’s criticism of the protests on Sept. 22, which prompted nearly 200 players to sit or take a knee during the national anthem in the Sept. 24-25 games in Week 3.  “After the president’s comments and NFL player reactions, Week 4 saw only a 5 percent increase, and now we’re seeing an outright decline. So that’s a bad direction,” said CNBC’s Eric Chemi.  The market works. 

LOW CLASS – FROM FOX:   A New York Democrat running for the House of Representatives is under fire for calling the female Republican incumbent in his district a “child,” while admitting it’s fair to call him “a sexist.”  Democratic congressional candidate Steve Krieg, a member of the Plattsburgh City School Board, made the comments about New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik during a Tuesday candidate forum with others seeking the seat.  “I recognize her as a child, and it has nothing to do with her age,” Krieg said. “I see her as a child because she’s a child. She thinks like a child. She has people set things up for her. She has people put their words in her mouth and she happily repeats them.”  The Democrat added, “I apologize if that’s mean.”  We await the reaction of the Democratic Party to this man's vulgar behavior.  I think we'll be waiting a long time.

October 6, 2017       Permalink

NATURALLY – AT 1:22 P.M. ET:   The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today, to a group that opposes nuclear weapons.  Hurrah.

The Nobel Peace Prize is something of a joke.  Please notice that "news" organizations never tell you exactly how it's decided and awarded.  It isn't given in Stockholm, like the other Nobels.  It's given in Oslo, and the decision is made by some obscure Norwegian parliamentarians.  If it didn't have the name "Nobel" attached, no one would care.

And no one should care.  After all, this is the same prize given to the likes of Al Gore and Jimmy Carter, neither of whom advanced peace one inch.  It has also been given to a whole bunch of unsavory characters.  Henry Kissinger tried to return his Nobel, given for the Vietnam peace agreement, when the agreement collapsed.  No one would take it back.  Results were not important.

So it shouldn't be surprising that today's laureates immediately went off on Donald Trump.  I mean, among the European leftists, it's a requirement.  From AFP:

GENEVA, Switzerland — US President Donald Trump’s presidency has put a spotlight on the risks of nuclear weapons, the Nobel Peace Prize winning nuclear disarmament group ICAN said on Friday.

“The election of President Donald Trump has made a lot of people feel very uncomfortable with the fact that he alone can authorize the use of nuclear weapons,” the head of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Beatrice Fihn, told reporters in Geneva.

She said the US leader appeared to have a track record of “not listening to expertise”, and insisted his supervision of a massive nuclear arsenal “just puts a spotlight” on the dangers of such weapons.

COMMENT:  Yup, it's always the American guy who puts the world in danger.  They said the same thing about Ronald Reagan, who actually did more to end the nuclear arms race than any other American president.  But it's not proper to make that observation, and you won't get an invitation to the correct cocktail parties. 

I guess these "anti-nuclear" groups mean well, but what have they ever accomplished?  President Trump is trying to end the North Korean and Iranian nuclear threats, but I haven't noticed that he's gotten much encouragement from the peace industry.

October 6, 2017       Permalink

SPLITS WITHIN THE GOP – AT 10:34 A.M. ET:   They are serious.  They are resulting in great anger and threats, and can cost the party the control of Congress.  From The Politico: 

Republicans are confronting a growing revolt from their top donors, who are cutting off the party in protest over its inability to get anything done.

Tensions reached a boiling point at a recent dinner at the home of Los Angeles billionaire Robert Day. In full view of around two dozen guests, Thomas Wachtell, a retired oil and gas investor and party contributor, delivered an urgent message to the night’s headliner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: Just do something.

Wachtell, who has given tens of thousands of dollars over the years to Senate Republicans, recalled that McConnell responded defensively. Passing legislation takes time, the Republican leader responded, and President Donald Trump didn’t seem to understand how long it required.

“Anybody who was there knew that I was not happy. And I don’t think anybody was happy. How could you be?” said Wachtell, who has previously given over $2,000 to McConnell but recently stopped donating to Senate GOP causes. “You’re never going to get a more sympathetic Republican than I am. But I’m sick and tired of nothing happening.”

With the GOP’s agenda at a virtual standstill on Capitol Hill, the party is contending with a hard reality. Some of the party's most elite and influential donors, who spent the past eight years plowing cash into the party’s coffers in hopes of accomplishing a sweeping conservative agenda and undoing Barack Obama’s legislative accomplishments, are closing their wallets.

The backlash is threatening to deprive Republicans of resources just as they're gearing up for the 2018 midterms.

COMMENT:  We're hearing this every day.  We wonder if the GOP can even survive as a viable political party if it doesn't achieve anything legislatively in Washington this year or early next.  The Republicans are in the best position they've had in almost a century...and nothing is getting done.

Also, we hear that the absolutely required tax-reform bill is already in trouble, facing objections from individual Republican members of the Senate.  If tax reform fails, the Republicans have no argument to make to the voting public.

I've long believed that President Trump's dream is to start his own political party.  He may get the chance.

October 6, 2017       Permalink

CLOSE CALL – AT 9:54 A.M. ET:  A terrorist attack apparently averted in Sweden.  From The Sun: 

A SUSPECTED bomber has been arrested after allegedly trying to smuggle Mother Of Satan explosives onto a plane in Sweden.

He was stopped at Gothenburg's Landvetter airport on Thursday morning trying to board a flight bound for an EU country.

A suspect, a German national in his twenties, is led away by police at a Swedish airport after allegedly trying to bring a bomb on a plane.

The German national, in his twenties, sparked a major security response.

Part of the airport was shut down while a bomb squad assessed a device — believed to be a Mother Of Satan explosive.

Photos published by local media show a man wearing a white hooded top being led away by police at around 8am yesterday.

The suspected bomb is also seen in luggage on a security conveyor.

COMMENT:  We'll await developments.  The sheer number of terror-related incidents in the last six months reminds us that terror threats are increasing, not decreasing. 

October 6,  2017     Permalink

OCTOBER 5,  2017

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

YALE IT ISN'T – FROM TOWNHALL:   Swansea University in Wales is renaming its law school after Hillary Clinton and will honor the two-time presidential candidate and former secretary of state with an honorary degree. Clinton is being honored for her "commitment to promoting the rights of families and children around the world," and will receive the degree on October 14.  Additionally, there will be a ceremony unveiling a stone that will change the name of Swansea's law school from College of Law to the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law. Clinton is of partial Welsh heritage.  Okay, at least it's a law school.  It could have been the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Laundry Science. 

HYPOCRITES – FROM  HOTAIR:  Fearless Girl, the bronze statue put up opposite the “Charging Bull” statue in New York City became a rallying point for feminists. But State Street, the company that commissioned the statue, seems to have fallen short of its own professed ideals. The Boston Globe reports State Street has agreed to a $5 million settlement for pay discrimination against female executives.  Absolute hypocrisy.  But this kind of hypocrisy is widespread in politics.

MORE AGONY FOR THE NFL – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   Even before its feud over the national anthem with President Trump, the NFL Players Association wasn’t on the same political team as many of its fans, judging from its contributions to leftist advocacy groups.  Tax documents released by 2ndVote show the NFLPA donated $5,000 in 2015 to the Center for Community Change Action, a group active in the anti-Trump resistance, and bankrolled by a host of liberal foundations, including top Democratic donor George Soros’s Foundation for Open Society.  A member of the AFL-CIO, the NFLPA also contributed in 2013 and 2015 to Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate, which Open Secrets said spent $1 million in 2016 to defeat Trump.  Working America has since mobilized against the Republican tax-cut framework, denouncing it as the “Trump tax scam.”  The NFLPA contributed $5,000 in 2014 to Jobs with Justice, another pro-union group backed by Soros, and $5,000 in 2013 to the progressive Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.  The NFL and its associated organizations seem to be determined to drive conservative fans away, and I'll bet conservatives make up most of their base.  The NFL needs new leadership.

October 5,  2017     Permalink

NORTH KOREA – AT 1:08 P.M. ET:   A serious authority predicts another North Korean action next week.  We have to take his concern seriously.  From US News:

A top CIA official for the Korean Peninsula warned Wednesday that the U.S. should be ready for a new provocation by North Korea on Columbus Day, Oct. 9, which coincides with the anniversary of the founding of the political party that governs in Pyongyang.

"Stand by your phones," Yong Suk Lee, deputy assistant director of the CIA's Korea Mission Center, said while speaking at a conference organized by the agency at The George Washington University.

Lee did not speculate what North Korea might do, though it frequently carries out missile launches or nuclear tests on major state anniversaries, such as the birthday of leader Kim Jong Un or other dates associated with the lives of his father or grandfather.  Oct. 10 marks the anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea in 1945.

Tensions with North Korea have reached new extremes in recent weeks, following months of increased weapons tests combined with new U.S. appraisals that Pyongyang is close to perfecting or perhaps already has made an intercontinental ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead and hit targets accurately.

Lee added that Pyongyang historically has been controlled by its fear of the Chinese abandoning its support for the Hermit Kingdom, or that the U.S. would carry out a military strike. Kim Jong Un no longer has those fears, Lee said.

"There's a clarity of purpose in what Kim Jong Un has done," Lee said.

COMMENT:   We'll see.  It's only a prediction, but an authoritative one.  The United States has usually been strong on technical intelligence, but much less strong on human intelligence – knowing the intent of enemy leaders.

Some say that Kim is actually very cautious, and has no interest in an actual conflict with the United States or any of our allies.  Others, however, say he's impulsive and unpredictable, and may act recklessly when he should be most careful.

You know, those Japanese are shrewd.  They'd never attack Pearl Harbor.

October 5, 2017       Permalink

THIS IS CHILLING – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  Conditions on our college campuses are deteriorating.  It's perfectly clear that a number of students, and some faculty members, have no business being in a place of learning.   From Fox: 

A celebration of free speech at William & Mary College in Virginia took an unexpected turn last week when protesters from Black Lives Matter swarmed the stage and forced organizers to end the event.

That's Tommy Jefferson's alma mater.  There won't be any more donations from him.

“Liberalism is white supremacy!” the protesters shouted, and “ACLU, you protect Hitler too!”

The disruption occurred before Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, could give a planned speech on freedom of expression.

So even the ACLU doesn't satisfy Black Lives Matter.  And liberalism is white supremacy.  William & Mary is today a state school, and students, faculty and guests are, supposedly, guaranteed the protection of the Bill of Rights. 

The protesters livestreamed the demonstration on Facebook and were heard shouting other slogans, including, "The oppressed are not impressed!,” “Blood on your hands!,” and “The revolution will not uphold the Constitution!”

The ACLU earned the wrath of the protesters after they defended white supremacists' right to march in Charlottesville, Va., in August, according to the campus's Flat Hat News. The march in Charlottesville quickly turned violent, leading to the death of one woman and injuries to many others.

Gastañaga tried to point out to the disruption as an example of why she needs to talk about freedom of expression on university campuses, saying “Good, I like this,” as the protesters raised their signs.

"I'm going to talk to you about knowing your rights, and protests and demonstrations, which this illustrates very well," she said. "Then I'm going to respond to questions from the moderators, and then questions from the audience."

But the protesters continued the disruption and barred anyone from approaching Gastañaga to speak. One organizer reportedly granted the demonstration's leader a chance to speak.

COMMENT:  Did the ACLU person actually believe they were going to allow her to speak?  These are fascists of the left.  They boast that "the revolution will not uphold the Constitution."  They want a dictatorship that they will run. 

And, of course, they are "oppressed," a word that has lost all meaning. 

Some campus administrations are fighting back against this violence.  Others knuckle under.  The Democratic Party is silent.  We must understand the oppressed, after all.

October 5, 2017       Permalink

CONFRONTING IRAN – AT 10:22 A.M. ET:   The president is set to announce a new policy on Iran.  This will be important.  From ace defense reporter Eli Lake, at Bloomberg:

After more than nine months in office, President Donald Trump finally has an Iran policy.

Last month before the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, Trump approved the long-awaited strategy to deal with Iran, according to administration officials. These officials tell me it will outline a new aggressive approach to countering Iranian threats all over the globe and endeavor to use the leverage of Trump's threats over the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to spur U.S. allies to begin to address its flaws.

On Wednesday at a press conference to dispel news reports that he considered quitting his post over the summer, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hinted the new policy was coming. Speaking of the Iran nuclear agreement, he said, "the JCPOA represents only a small part of the issues we have to address with Iran."

The centerpiece of Trump's new Iran strategy will be the designation of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, placing it in the same category as al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Congress mandated this designation over the summer, but allowed Trump to waive the requirement.

The designation would be significant.

The Revolutionary Guard in Iran controls a large portion of the state's economy. Iranian economist and businessman Bijan Khajehpour, in an article in al-Monitor in August, estimated that the guard was responsible for 15 percent of Iran's gross domestic product. (He also acknowledged that it's difficult to arrive at a precise statistic because there are no official statistics on the web of companies it controls and its stake in enterprises with state and semi-state entities in Iran's economy.)

The designation of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization could create problems for foreign companies seeking to invest in Iran. While the Treasury Department under President Barack Obama issued rules requiring private companies to do due diligence and avoid investment in the Revolutionary Guard, the rules were weakened in the final months of the administration.

The new designation will make life harder for those companies.

COMMENT:  Sounds like a good policy start to me, and well thought out.  It could help in establishing Trump as a very capable foreign-policy president. 

But, of course, we await the official announcement, and the fine print.

October 5,  2017     Permalink