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OCTOBER 13,  2017

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

COVERING UP THE OBVIOUS – FROM THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON:  The New York Times on Friday released new social media guidelines for its reporters, requiring them to avoid any actions that would lead to perceptions of bias or otherwise damage the paper's reputation.  The new guidelines apply to all social media platforms, public and private, and include stipulations about political objectivity, sharing stories in a one-sided manner, joining partisan groups, and more. The memo states that it only adds further detail to the policy that reporters do not damage the paper's credibility.  "If our journalists are perceived as biased or if they engage in editorializing on social media, that can undercut the credibility of the entire newsroom," the memo reads.  "We've always made clear that newsroom employees should avoid posting anything on social media that damages our reputation for neutrality and fairness," it adds. "This memo offers more detailed guidelines."  You may laugh now.

HOW MUCH HARM COULD SHE DO THERE? – FROM NY DAILY NEWS:  Hillary Clinton is testing the waters on a return to academia.  The former U.S. Secretary of State and presidential nominee is in talks with Columbia University to take on a formal role at the Ivy League — and potentially house her archives there, multiple sources told the Daily News.  One option under discussion is an esteemed “University Professor” role that would allow Clinton to lecture across a range of schools and departments without the requirement of a strict course load, one source said.  A former law professor, Clinton could maintain the vaunted but vague role indefinitely or decide at a later date she wants to settle at Columbia's celebrated law school or maybe the School of International and Public Affairs, the source said.  Schoolmarm sounds just about right.  I wonder if she'll make Republicans stand in the corner.

JUICY, I CAN'T WAIT – FROM FOX:   Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch said Friday that the FBI has uncovered 30 pages of documents related to the controversial 2016 tarmac meeting between former President Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  The newly uncovered documents will be sent to Judicial Watch by the end of November in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, a spokesman for the group told Fox News.  Judicial Watch originally filed a FOIA request in July 2016 -- which the Justice Department did not comply with -- seeking “all records of communications between any agent, employee, or representative” of the FBI for the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server use, and all records related to the June 27, 2016 meeting between Lynch and Bill Clinton.   This is juicy.  That was not a social engagement. 

October 13,  2017     Permalink

NFL CAVES – AT 12:52 P.M. ET:   Contrary to what was anticipated, the NFL will not mandate that players show respect during the playing of the national anthem.  The league has caved.  From Reuters:

Commissioner Roger Goodell, along with the head of the NFL Players Association, will meet with the owners from Oct. 17-18 in New York where the issue of player protests during the U.S. national anthem is expected to command much attention.

“(Goodell) has a plan that he is going to present to owners about how to use our platform to both raise awareness and make progress on issues of social justice and equality in this country,” NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said on a conference call.

“What we don’t have is a proposal that changes our policy, we don’t have something that mandates anything. That’s clear. If that was the case I doubt the head of the NFLPA would have put a joint statement out with us.”

The statement released on Wednesday said Goodell invited NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith to the meetings and that the agenda will be a continuation of how to make progress on the important social issues that players have vocalized.

COMMENT:  I'll bet that not one proposal that comes out of this shakedown affects the life of one black child.   I'll also bet that NFL ratings continue to decline.

October 13, 2017       Permalink

REPUBLICAN OPTIMISM – IS IT JUSTIFIED? – AT 11:26 A.M. ET:   The death of the Republican Party, or at least its electoral demise, are widely and routinely predicted.  We do it here, I readily admit.

But the party's chair is feelin' good, and it's up to us to decide whether the feeling has any merit.  From The Hill: 

Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna Romney McDaniel says the GOP is "in the best place" it's ever been.

During a visit to Denver, McDaniel said the party’s high fundraising shows a strong base, the Denver Post reported.

“The RNC has had, actually, record fundraising in a post-presidential year,” Romney McDaniel said. “That shows that our base is rallying around what our president put forward in terms of his agenda. … I think we’re in the best place we’ve ever been as a party.”

McDaniel’s comments come on the heels of several ongoing feuds between President Trump and GOP members of Congress, as well as with members of his own cabinet.

“There’s always going to be differences of opinion within your own party,” she said. “We have that in our own families — that happens — it makes us stronger when we have a dialogue and a discussion.”

Recent polls have shown the GOP’s popularity plummeting after the party failed to repeal and replace ObamaCare, and that Democrats lead Republicans by 14 points in a generic 2018 House ballot.

Even more recently, conservative leaders have called on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to resign.

COMMENT:  I think the actual picture is very mixed.  Republicans must produce actual results to retain control of Congress in next year's midterms. 

I wouldn't worry about polls right now.  The election is more than a year away.  But if Americans aren't given a tax cut, with all the promises and hoopla, the GOP will have nothing to take into the campaign.  I could even see circumstances where President Trump refused to endorse many Republican candidates for re-election.  He's that stubborn.  As noted here before, I think his ultimate goal is to start his own party. 

Of course, the Republicans can win by default if the Democrats continue their march to the left.   Or some unexpected international event can unify the country behind the president and his party. 

But right now I'm not nearly as optimistic as the party chair.  The party is getting a reputation for do-nothingism, and the president is being viciously hammered by the press just for existing.  This will not be easy.

October 13, 2017       Permalink 

THE NUCLEAR REALITY – AND MAYBE IT'S TIME WE FACED IT – AT 10:33 A.M. ET:  President Trump will today unveil his new strategy for Iran.  Whether you will agree with it or not, at least he's addressing the failures of the nuclear deal, failures papered over by the Democratic Party and the Obama press. 

We are also facing a nuclear crisis with North Korea.  And here is a stark fact that should keep Washington up at night.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Congress was warned Thursday that North Korea is capable of attacking the U.S. today with a nuclear EMP bomb that could indefinitely shut down the electric power grid and kill 90 percent of "all Americans" within a year.

At a House hearing, experts said that North Korea could easily employ the "doomsday scenario" to turn parts of the U.S. to ashes.

In calling on the Pentagon and President Trump to move quickly to protect the grid, the experts testified that the effect of an explosion of a high-altitude nuclear bomb delivered by a missile or satellite "could be to shut down the U.S. electric power grid for an indefinite period, leading to the death within a year of up to 90 percent of all Americans."

Two members of the former congressional EMP commission said the threat to the U.S. has never been higher, in part because of the current high level of saber rattling by both sides and North Korea's surprising display over the past six months of its ability to deliver on its threats.

"With the development of small nuclear arsenals and long-range missiles by new, radical U.S. adversaries, beginning with North Korea, the threat of a nuclear EMP attack against the U.S. becomes one of the few ways that such a country could inflict devastating damage to the United States. It is critical, therefore, that the U.S. national leadership address the EMP threat as a critical and existential issue, and give a high priority to assuring the leadership is engaged and the necessary steps are taken to protect the country from EMP," the experts told a House Homeland Security subcommittee.

COMMENT:  This discussion has been going on for at least a quarter of a century, yet it never seems to emerge from the background.  But it is possibly the greatest threat we face.

Some say that no enemy would dare to launch an EMP attack because the U.S. would destroy that country.  And I reply that nations don't always act rationally.  The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese was irrational, but it was done.

I'd harden every major electrical and computer site in America, no matter what the cost.  But I'm afraid it will never be done.

October 13,  2017     Permalink

OCTOBER 12,  2017

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

BYE-BYE – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Tennessee Titans player Rishard Matthews tweeted Thursday that he’ll quit the NFL if the league implements a rule forcing players to stand during the anthem.  “No I will be done playing football,” Matthews tweeted and ultimately deleted when asked if he would be willing to face punishment for not standing if a new rule is implemented.  Ignorance.  Absolute lack of respect for anyone else.  I hope the NFL calls him on this, and that he bids us farewell.

THE NUT CASE IS BACK – FROM THE HILL:  The mayor of Puerto Rico's largest city said President Trump is the “Hater in Chief” after Trump said the U.S. response to the crisis in the U.S. territory couldn’t last “forever.”  “[Y]our comments about Puerto Rico are unbecoming of a Commander in Chief,” Carmen Yulín Cruz tweeted, “they seem more to come from a ‘Hater in Chief’.”  Earlier Thursday, Cruz blasted Trump for his remarks, saying he is “incapable of fulfilling the moral imperative to help the people of [Puerto Rico].”  In a statement released after her tweets, Cruz continued lambasting Trump, saying his actions are “unbecoming of a leader of the free world.”  “It is not that you do not get it, it is that you are incapable of empathy and frankly simply cannot get the job done,” Cruz said.  Cruz also issued a striking plea for help from the United Nations and other international aid organizations to “stop the genocide” in Puerto Rico.  What a complete fool.  There are thousands of federal workers and troops in Puerto Rico.  But the island was bankrupt and in terrible shape before the storm.  It is poorly run and pounded by corruption.  And the mayor of San Juan seems to imagine herself as a latter-day Evita Peron.  But the left is trying to find some way to blame Trump, just as it blamed BUSH (!!) and CHENEY (!!!!) for Hurricane Katrina.  Next you'll see the mayor taking a knee.

TV BLUES – FROM HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:  A day after DirecTV parent AT&T said it would lose subscribers because people are ditching their satellite and cable television services — a phenomenon known as cord-cutting — shares of companies heavily invested in the TV industry tumbled.  Shares of AT&T, the culprit in Thursday's sell-off, dropped 6 percent, dragging shares of its presumed merger partner, Time Warner, down 2 percent in the process.  AT&T said in a regulatory filing that in the recently ended quarter it would report gaining 300,000 subscribers to its over-the-top digital service while losing 390,000 traditional TV subscribers, for a net loss of 90,000 subs.  While it cited several causes — including hurricanes and changing its credit standards for new customers — it was this line in the filing that Wall Street keyed on: "The video net losses were driven by heightened competition in traditional pay TV markets and OTT services ..."  Thursday's carnage included shares of AMC Networks falling 7 percent; Dish Network off 5 percent; Discovery Communications, Sinclair Broadcast Group and E.W. Scripps Co. each off 4 percent; and Charter Communications down 3 percent.   Many people feel they no longer need the traditional services.  Hmm.  I wonder if that has anything to do with their attitude toward slanted news networks and "entertainment" programs filled with political messages.  Just askin'.

October 12, 2017       Permalink

OH PLEASE – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  A labor union gets ridiculous.  From the Dallas Morning News: 

A local union has filed a charge against the Dallas Cowboys and the National Football League claiming that the organizations are violating players federal rights in the national anthem dispute.  

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reportedly threatened to bench players that opt to kneel when the anthem is played at the beginning of the games. “If we are disrespecting the flag then we won't play. Period,” he told the news media after Sunday’s game. “We're going to respect the flag.”

That’s a violation of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, according to the Local 100 United Labor Unions, which represents workers in the southeastern states of Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.

On Tuesday, the group filed a charge with the Fort Worth office of the National Labor Relations Board, saying Jones’ public statements attempt to threaten, coerce and intimidate team members.

“The law is the law. And it’s against the law to threaten someone’s job,” said chief organizer, Wade Rathke. “Mr. Jones is way, way, way out of line here. And he needs to get back in his lane.”

COMMENT:  I'm certainly not anti-union.  I'm a union member myself.  Okay, it's the Writers Guild of America, which is concerned about things like anxiety attacks and writers' block, but it's a union, with real union cards.

I think the union guys are going wrong here.  They'll have to do some serious judge shopping to win this one.  Of course, that can be done.  But Jones is simply insisting on workplace decorum.  We cannot have employees free to launch political demonstrations, on company time, whenever they wish.

October 12, 2017       Permalink

GETTING SERIOUS – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  Can it be true?  Am I reading this right?  Are the Republicans actually getting serious about tax cuts?  From The Hill: 

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday that he'd keep lawmakers in Washington at Christmas time to vote on a tax bill if necessary.

"I mean, I don't care. We got to get this done," the speaker said at the Heritage Foundation. 
Ryan said that Congress is "on track" to get a tax-reform bill enacted by the end of the year. He noted that the House passed its budget resolution with tax-reform instructions last week, and the Senate plans to advance its measure next week.

The speaker predicted that the House will send a tax bill to the Senate in November. "That gives us time to get this thing done in law," he said.

Ryan said that if a new tax system is in place at the beginning of 2018, he thinks the U.S. could grow by at least 3 percent next year. The Trump administration has also been calling for tax reform to boost growth to 3 percent.

"The difference between a 2 percent and a 3 percent economy is trillions," Ryan said. "It's higher wages, bigger paychecks, more take-home pay, and growth and opportunity abound. It really is that big of a difference."

COMMENT:  Okay, guys, let's go.  And Sen. Mitch McConnell has got to work overtime to keep his troops in line.  Republicans only have a two-seat majority in the Senate. 

It might not be a bad idea to try to get some Democratic Senate support.  There are Dem senators up for re-election from red states who will be hard pressed to explain why they voted against a tax cut.

October 12, 2017       Permalink

US OUT OF UNESCO – IT'S ABOUT TIME – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  The United States is withdrawing from UNESCO.  And not for the first time.  From The Hill: 

The Trump administration on Thursday said it would withdraw the United States from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), citing anti-Israeli bias from the organization.

UNESCO was informed of the administration's decision on Thursday. The State Department said the U.S. would instead see to be a permanent observer to UNESCO, a UN organization that promotes collaboration among countries through culture, education and science.  

“This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO,” State spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. 

This is not the first time the United States has withdrawn from the organization, nor is it the first time the United States has criticized UNESCO for anti-Israeli bias. The United States also withdrew from the organization during the Cold War under former President Ronald Reagan.

And...

The U.S. will still be involved with the organization “as a non-member observer state,” the State Department said.

The goal is “to contribute U.S. views, perspectives and expertise on some of the important issues undertaken by the organization, including the protection of world heritage, advocating for press freedoms, and promoting scientific collaboration and education.”

The withdrawal will become official on December 31, 2018.

COMMENT:  The timing of the withdrawal, which was long overdue, may be significant.  UNESCO, one of the UN's most corrupt organizations, is choosing a new president.  Some real bad hombres are in contention.   UNESCO is dominated by Muslim and "third world" countries.  Our withdrawal, which can be reversed, may stun UNESCO into recognizing that actions have consequences.

October 12,  2017     Permalink