Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

OCTOBER 9,  2018

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

MANY PEOPLE ARE WORRIED – FROM FOX:   Following the bitterly partisan, acrimonious confirmation battle over Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., warned in an interview on Tuesday that heated political rhetoric has the potential to turn deadly.  "I fear that there's going to be an assassination," Paul told a Kentucky radio show. "I really worry that somebody is going to be killed, and that those who are ratcheting up the conversation ... they have to realize they bear some responsibility if this elevates to violence."  Paul's wife, Kelley, revealed in a Breitbart News interview on Friday that she sleeps with a "loaded gun by my bed," has updated her home's security system and has "deadbolts all around my house." Kelley also wrote an op-ed published by CNN in which she called on Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., to tone down his rhetoric; in June, Booker called on his supporters to  “get up in the face of congresspeople.”  I share this concern.  Remember that Republican lawmakers were fired on at a baseball field in Virginia.  It's not if, but when, if the heated rhetoric continues. 

BIAS?  WHAT BIAS?  – FROM MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER:  In four weeks, Americans go to the polls for the midterm elections that the news media are casting as a referendum on the Trump presidency. Over the summer, the broadcast networks have continued to pound Donald Trump and his team with the most hostile coverage of a President in TV news history — 92 percent negative, vs. just eight percent positive.  For this report, MRC analysts reviewed all 1,007 evening news stories (1,960 minutes of airtime) about the Trump administration on ABC, CBS and NBC from June 1 to September 30, tallying the coverage of each topic and all evaluative comments made by anchors, reporters and non-partisan sources (such as voters or experts).  The results show that, over the past four months, nearly two-thirds of evening news coverage of the Trump presidency has been focused on just five main topics: the Russia investigation; immigration policy; the Kavanaugh nomination; North Korea diplomacy; and U.S. relations with Russia. The networks’ coverage of all of these topics has been highly negative, while bright spots for the administration such as the booming economy received extremely little coverage (less than one percent of the four-month total).  This doesn't surprise me.  Journalism as we know it is fading away.  Or, maybe more accurately, it is committing suicide.

IN HOT WATER IN ALASKA – FROM DAILYWIRE.COM:   The Alaska Republican party has requested that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) submit any information she has that might dissuade them from reprimanding her for opposing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.  As AP reports, “Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock says the committee could decide to issue a statement. Or he says it could withdraw support of Murkowski, encourage party officials to look for a replacement and ask that she not seek re-election as a Republican.”  Babcock noted that the Alaska GOP has, in the past, withdrawn support for other Republicans who caucused with Democrats.  After Murkowski voted against cloture last Friday, indicating she would vote against him in the senate vote for confirmation to the Supreme Court, Babcock said he was "surprised." He added, "It's significant enough that I'm going to convene the whole state central committee, which is about 80 grassroots volunteers around the state, and we'll start drafting what our response should be.”  Murkowski is less than loved among Alaska Republicans.  There is talk that former Governor Sarah Palin may run against her for the GOP Senate nomination in 2022, but that's a long way off.

October 9, 2018       Permalink

HIS FIRST DAY – AT 2:21 P.M. ET:   Justice Kavanaugh went to work this morning at the Supreme Court.  He was a full participant.  From Reuters: 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moving beyond a ferocious confirmation battle that divided the country, Brett Kavanaugh got down to business as a U.S. Supreme Court justice on Tuesday and took an active role in arguments alongside his eight new colleagues on his first day on the job.

Kavanaugh asked several questions during lively oral arguments involving a federal sentencing law for repeat offenders, three days after being confirmed by the Republican-led Senate despite being accused of sexual assault. Appointed by President Donald Trump, Kavanaugh’s confirmation cemented a conservative majority on the court that could last for years.

He took his seat at the right end of the mahogany bench in the ornate courtroom, wearing traditional black robes like the other justices. Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, the 82-year-old jurist who Kavanaugh replaced, was in the courtroom, as were members of the new justice’s family.

With police standing by, a handful of protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court building, holding signs saying “Shame” and “He sits on a throne of lies,” while chanting, “This isn’t over, we’re still here.” There were no disruptions by protesters during the oral arguments, with security tight in the courtroom.

COMMENT:  Ordinarily, one would say that Kavanaugh's ordeal is over, but I think the fanatics are very serious in their pledge to continue their fight over his confirmation.  They are promising to seek his impeachment, and, given the madness within the Democratic Party, they may actually try.

October 9, 2018       Permalink

PRESIDENT STILL HOLDING – AT 1:32 P.M. ET:  For the third reporting day running, the president is at 51%.  From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-seven percent (47%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 38% who Strongly Approve of the president is performing and 39% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -1.

The president’s approval rating has held steady at 51% since the end of last week, his highest level of approval since early March of last year, shortly after he first took office.

COMMENT:  The election is four weeks from today.  If the president continues with his relatively high standing, it could pull some Republicans over the victory line in close congressional districts. 

Four weeks, remember, is three lifetimes in politics.  I expect that the Dems will pull some late-minute surprise, to be dropped the weekend before the election.  That's their style.  I hope the president has his lawyers ready.

October 9, 2018       Permalink

11:22 A.M. ET:  Just watched the tape of President Trump and Ambassador Haley, announcing Haley's resignation.  It appears that there is nothing secret or sinister here.  Occasionally, things in Washington are exactly as they appear.  Nikki Haley simply wanted a change of pace.  No word on a successor.

10:50 A.M. ET:  The president's statement with Nikki Haley is being taped.  All we know from a pool reporter is that the president praised Haley, said that she'd told him six months ago that she might want to leave, and that she'd stay in constant contact with the administration.  There is a sense of bafflement.  She is the single most popular member of the administration, according to polls.  A substantial loss.

We've just heard on Fox that Haley said she would not be running for president in 2020, but would be supporting President Trump.

BULLETIN – AT 10:35 A.M. ET:  NIKKI HALEY RESIGNS AS UN AMBASSADOR.   PRESIDENT TO MAKE THE ANNOUNCEMENT IN A FEW MINUTES.  EVERYONE STUNNED.  STAND BY.

OCTOBER 8,  2018

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

TAKE THAT, BARACK – FROM CNBC:  Global investors are betting on America's economic success now more than ever, Morgan Stanley's Ruchir Sharma told CNBC on Monday.  "This year has been a story of how well America has done," he said on "Squawk Box," calling it an example of "American exceptionalism."  "We may or may not believe in [American exceptionalism], but the financial markets have never believed in it to such an extent," added Sharma, head of emerging markets and chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. The global firm has $474 billion in assets under management, as of June 30, 2018.  The strong economy has been touted by Trump administration officials such as top aide Larry Kudlow, who called it "the hottest economy in the world."  The respect we get may be grudging, but it's there.  America as a true world power is back, and the world benefits.

YOUNG MEN IN DANGER – FROM RASMUSSEN:   Responding to the drumbeat of support by Democrats for the still unproven sexual assault allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump said this week, “It’s a very scary time for young men in America when you can be found guilty of something that you may not be guilty of.” Most voters agree.  The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters agree with Trump’s statement. Thirty-four percent (34%) disagree.  And many Americans don't understand that when they send a child to a private college, he or she is not protected by the Bill of Rights.  That can be changed.

WE FEEL HIS PAIN – FROM INDIEWIRE:   Robert Redford may be done acting, but he’s not riding off into the sunset anytime soon. The actor, filmmaker, and Sundance Film Festival founder published “A Brief Statement About Big Things” on the Sundance Institute’s website yesterday, writing that he feels “out of place in the country I was born into” for the first time he can remember and that he has “watched with sadness as our civil servants have failed us.”  The overtly political speech was published the same day that Brett Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Supreme Court following a nasty confirmation process that once again emphasized how bitterly divided the country has become. Neither Kavanaugh nor anyone else is mentioned by name, but Redford citing “bigotry, mean-spiritedness, and mockery as the now-normal tools of the trade” suggests his anger probably isn’t directed at Amy Klobuchar.  Each night I go to bed ashamed at the way we have let Robert Redford down.

October 8, 2018       Permalink

THE "ANTI-WOMAN" JUSTICE – AT 11:47 A.M. ET:  Brett Kavanaugh is setting a record as he joins the Court.  All his clerks will be female.  Take that, Hillary.  From The Week: 

The newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has already fulfilled one of his promises.

After weeks of contentious hearings, the Senate voted to confirm the polarizing nominee Saturday evening. And Kavanaugh was already on the job Sunday morning with the court's first-ever all-women team of law clerks by his side, The New York Times reports.

Even before sexual assault allegations rocked his confirmation process, concerns swirled around Kavanaugh's stance on women's right. Specifically, Democratic senators feared he would provide the court with a conservative majority that could facilitate the rolling back of Roe v. Wade. Kavanaugh tried to counter those concerns at his first round of confirmation hearings, touting how "no federal judge ... has sent more women law clerks to clerk on the Supreme Court than I have." He also said he had four female law clerks ready to work for him "on a moment's notice," which would make him "the first justice in the history of the Supreme Court to have a group of all-women law clerks."

Those four women — Kim Jackson, Shannon Grammel, Megan Lacy, and Sara Nommensen — were at the Supreme Court on Sunday, aiding Kavanaugh ahead of his first case hearings this week, the Times details. Jackson will become one of three black law clerks working at the Supreme Court this term. She has previously worked for Kavanaugh, along with one of the other black clerks, per The Washington Post.

Kavanaugh will kick off his Supreme Court career Tuesday with a case about crimes involving firearms.

COMMENT:  You may be sure there will be vulgar comments from the left about the judge being surrounded in his office by all women, and you may also be sure that these four brilliant women will get plenty of hate mail.  That's the way things are.

October 8, 2018       Permalink

PRESIDENT HOLDS – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  We have the first tracker following the swearing-in of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  The president is holding at 51%.  From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-seven percent (47%) disapprove. 

The latest figures include 38% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 38% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of zero (0). (see trends). 

 This is Trump’s highest Presidential Approval Index rating since early February of last year, shortly after he first took office.  By comparison, Barack Obama earned a presidential approval index rating of -12 on October 8, 2010, in the second year of his presidency. 

COMMENT:  We await other polls, and the state-by-state polls.  But, although I resist foolish optimism, I prefer to think of this as a good sign. 

The election is four weeks from tomorrow.

October 8,  2018     Permalink