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OCTOBER 25,  2018

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

A BRINKLEY MOMENT – I recall an edition of the old Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC, when David Brinkley announced that he had nothing to report that night because nothing had happened.  Nothing much is happening now as well.  The "reports" we see contain so much padding we could easily produce millions of comfy beds.  Cops found some more inoperative "bombs" today, and, increasingly, this week's big story – suspicious packages in famous mail boxes – looks more and more like show biz by a failed showman.  The fact is that the last two weeks of campaigning is sucking most of the air out of the news.  There is nothing that will shut down journalism faster than a member of Congress trying to keep his job, and pension.  On Tuesday we will hit the one-week mark, and the countdown will begin to what the mighty media is calling the most important midterm election of our time.  They seem to say that every four years.

ELLISON SINKING – FROM ROLL CALL:  Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison has fallen behind Republican Doug Wardlow in the race for Minnesota attorney general, a new poll released this week showed.  Wardlow flipped the race on its head, pacing Ellison by 7 points, 43 percent to 36 percent, according to the Star Tribune/MPR News poll conducted as the discussion surrounding an allegation of domestic abuse levied against Ellison by his ex-girlfriend heightened over the last month.  Ellison has forcefully denied the claim. His ex-wife has also taken the Democratic congressman’s side, saying that even though their relationship ended in a messy divorce, Ellison never struck her and is not the type of person to turn physically violent on a woman.  Roughly one in six of the 800 likely voters surveyed from Oct. 15 through Oct. 17 remained undecided, a considerable bloc this late in the race.  Sometimes there are stories that are morally uplifting.  This is one of them.

THE MARCH OF HYPOCRISY – FROM THE FEDERALIST:   The New York Times published a fictional essay fantasizing about President Trump getting assassinated the same week that explosive devices were sent to prominent political figures across the country.  After explosive devices were sent to prominent Democrats and liberal political figures — Maxine Waters, Joe Biden, George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Brennan, and others — New York Times opinion columnist Charles M. Blow blamed Trump for creating a “toxic environment” that led to these attempted acts of terrorism.  “Trump doesn’t operate on an intellectual plane, but an emotional one, and the emotions he has learned to manipulate in politics are the darker ones,” Blow wrote, adding a summary of Trump’s speech at a rally for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas during which the president said Democrats want to “destroy American communities.”  “This is the rhetorical backdrop as we await an investigation and answers about who sent bombs to Democrats and the CNN offices,” Blow wrote.  Here’s some of the rhetorical backdrop being painted by The New York Times. In a collection of fictional essays published Tuesday, one author fantasized about a Secret Service agent helping the Russians assassinate Trump.  Once a great newspaper.  No longer.  Of course, they aren't aware of their own hypocrisy.  They are too busy lecturing their readers on morality.

October 25, 2018       Permalink

THE PRESIDENT ACTS – AT 12:14 P.M. ET:   As the caravan north moves closer, the president is taking the action he promised.  From Fox: 

Hundreds of U.S. troops are set to make their way to the southern border to help Homeland Security and the National Guard as a caravan with thousands of migrants pushes north with the goal of crossing into America, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.

The official said roughly 800 soldiers will be sent to the area to offer “logistical support," including providing tents and vehicles.

It’s not immediately clear which units are being tasked with the mission as details are still being finalized.

Defense Secretary James Mattis could sign the deployment orders as soon as today.

There are currently 2,100 National Guard troops on the southern border assisting Homeland Security.
President Trump tweeted Thursday morning that "I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will be stopped!"

The migrant caravan as of Thursday is still in southern Mexico, more than 1,000 miles away from the nearest entry point into the U.S. Its size is estimated to be around 7,000, but many of those currently walking are suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and heat stroke.

Some also told Fox News they fear getting attacked if they hop on a cargo train or getting deported if they take a bus.

“They are going to walk as long as they can,” said caravan member Brian Colindres, “or as far as they can.”

COMMENT:  Should we feel for these people?  Of course we should.  They're human beings.  But should we let them just come in illegally?  No.  The right answer is to stop them at the border, and demand that the UN and Central American governments house them.  We should give each migrant a packet, in their own language, explaining how to legally apply for entrance into the United States.

In other words, follow our laws, as tens of millions have.  We will treat you with kindness, but we will not destroy our tradition of law.

October 25, 2018        Permalink

THE BEAT GOES ON, AND GETS CURIOSER AND CURIOSER – AT 11:50 A.M. ET:  Several new "bombs" have been discovered.  It's nine so far, and, oddly, none has gone off.  From Fox: 

Former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro -- both prominent critics of the Trump administration -- were the targets of suspicious packages discovered Thursday, officials said, one day after several similar parcels were sent to the homes and businesses of various Democratic politicos on Wednesday.

The FBI, New Castle County, Del., police and postal inspectors were investigating the package addressed to Biden, law enforcement officials told Fox News, stressing the suspicious package investigation was the bureau's highest priority. The FBI was also investigating a second package addressed to Biden at a postal facility in Wilmington. Both packages were similar to the others that were received. The FBI later confirmed the packages were addessed to Biden and De Niro

The FBI Laboratory at Quantico, Va., is also engaged, beginning forensic analysis of some of the packages addressed to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, liberal billionaire George Soros, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former CIA Director John Brennan and California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters.

Pictures of the contents of the Brennan package appeared to show a pipe bomb, but it wasn't clear if the explosive was in working order, and several experts took to social media to note flaws in the design. The Brennan device was also wrapped with a spoof flag of the terror group ISIS that bore the Larry the Cable Guy catchphrase "Get 'Er Done." It wasn't clear if either the Biden or De Niro packages contained similar contents.

COMMENT:  Ah yes, right before the election.  And the caravan of "migrants" coming north from Central America?  Right before the election. I don't believe in coincidences.

None of the "devices" has gone off, something almost unheard of.  Looks like an amateur job.  One Urgent Agenda reader calls it "performance art."  The "device" delivered to CNN was hand carried.  Why wasn't the carrier concerned about video surveillance?

No one knows who's sending the devices.  But the disgraceful behavior of the liberal press, in trying to pin the blame on President Trump, is a new low in journalism.  We'll see other new lows. 

Will the case be solved?  Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik says that he thinks it will be solved within a few days.  I dunno.  We once had a guy in New York who planted bombs around the city, and it took years to nab him.  He was called the Mad Bomber.  Turned out he had a grudge against the electric company.

We await facts, even though a good part of the media doesn't care about them.

October 25,  2018     Permalink 

OCTOBER 24,  2018

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

A VULGAR DAY – Which is the way I prefer to put it.  The planting of bombs was bad enough.  What followed was an orgy of irresponsible comment, especially from CNN, which fans the flames of Trump hatred more vigorously than does any other network.  CNN claimed to be a "victim" of today's discovery of potentially explosive devices addressed to prominent political figures and CNN.  But, wait a minute.  CNN wasn't actually the target of the "CNN Bomb."  It was former CIA Director John Brennan, to whom the device was addressed.  He sometimes comments on CNN, and thus the bomber, or kook, or conspirator, simply sent the device to Brennan, using CNN as his address.  But, no matter, CNN whined all day about its victimhood, and allowed once-important historian Douglas Brinkley to charge on the air that President Trump is a neo-fascist.  Please note that all this is taking place before we even know who the guilty party is.  CNN's childish performance has to win some kind of bad journalism award.  Maybe it can award itself the CNN Prize for Mediocrity. 

SPECULATION – That's all we have right now – speculation.  We know that none of the devices went off, suggesting that the person or persons behind the grand plot are no geniuses, and have no training in explosives.  We know that all the targets are on the political left, which tells us nothing about the motive of the plotter.  We know that at least one device, the one addressed to Brennan at CNN, was delivered either by the bomber himself or by a courier.  Curious, that point.  Why would someone intentionally walk into an area covered by video surveillance?  I find that to be the most intriguing aspect of this episode so far.  Of course, the authorities may know things they're not releasing, and it may be that the plotters are in secret contact with some agency.  It is also possible that the drama will pass, and that the perpetrators will never be found.

WONDERFUL – We end on an inspiring note.  Despite all our concerns about the young generation, we have many terrific young people in this country.  From CBS:  Eighteen-year-old Dalton Shaffer was working his shift at Steve's Pizza in Battle Creek, Michigan, Tuesday night when he got a call about an old customer.  The man on the phone said his son-in-law, Rick Morgan, who had moved to Indianapolis, was a big fan of Steve's Pizza and was battling cancer. They had planned a trip back to Michigan and a visit to Steve's, but Morgan's health took a turn for the worse and he was now in hospice care. The man wondered if the shop might be willing to send Morgan a text or a card.  "He was kind of telling me just a little bit about how they used to live in Battle Creek and they were just really big fans of Steve's Pizza," Shaffer told CBS affiliate WWMT.  After hearing that a fan of Steve's Pizza was unable to fulfill his dream of eating a slice again, Shaffer wanted to do more than send a card. He asked the father-in-law what kind of pizza Morgan wanted. Then, after he closed up shop for the night, Shaffer jumped in his car with two pizzas.  He drove three and a half hours from Michigan to the home in Indiana.  "The family came up, gave me a hug... The expressions on their faces and everything, like, that was cool," Shaffer told the station.  What a great kid.  I hope some good college offers him a scholarship just based on character.

October 24, 2018       Permalink

DISGRACEFUL, UTTERLY DISGRACEFUL – AT 2:56 P.M. ET:  It's already starting.  CNN, whose headquarters in New York were evacuated this morning when a suspicious package was found, is already on the air bashing President Trump for creating the atmosphere that made this morning's events possible.

Yup, it's TRUMP!!!  And years ago it was BUSH!!! and CHENEY!!!!!!!

The left always has it figured out in ten minutes, and knows who to blame.  CNN whiners were outraged that the president, in condemning the sender of the suspicious packages, didn't mention CNN itself.  Why, CNN's on-air personalities seemed personally hurt, and seemed to suggest that Trump's criticisms of CNN prompted the arrival of the package in question.

I will point out that David Gregory was an exception, and didn't join the whining parade, except for a brief period.  I will also point out that it took Kate Bolduan to calm things down by pointing out that we know almost nothing about these suspicious devices.   The acts may have absolutely nothing to do with the political atmosphere in the country.  The authorities have no idea about names or motives. 

I recall the day of the assassination of President Kennedy.  I was being discharged from the US Army the very hour of the event.  After my release I joined another soldier for a car ride from Fort Dix, New Jersey, to Manhattan.  We heard the first bulletins.  "Three shots were fired at President Kennedy..."

Then we heard, even before President Kennedy arrived at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, that a man and a woman had been seen running up a grassy knoll after the shots had been fired.  Thus began the "grassy knoll" theory.  And then we heard that the political atmosphere in Dallas was poisonous, filled with right-wing hatred for the president.  We were told that a particularly vitriolic anti-Kennedy ad had run that very morning in a Dallas paper.  It became the approved narrative – right-wing hatred caused the horrible act. 

It turned out, of course, that neither the "grassy knoll" incident nor the political atmosphere had anything to do with the murder of the president.  Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin, was on the political left.  The people running up the grassy knoll had been trying to escape the gunfire.

We still await facts.

October 24, 2018       Permalink

GET THE FACTS RIGHT! – AT 12:46 P.M. ET:  Suspicious packages have been sent to the homes of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George Soros, and to CNN in New York.  It is exceptionally important not to assume who sent them.  But assumptions will be made, for political purposes, right before an election.  From Fox: 

The Secret Service said Wednesday that officers "intercepted" two suspicious packages identified as "potential explosive devices" sent to former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, as reports of other potential threats against political and media targets led to evacuations in a rapidly evolving security scare.

Local reports said the Florida building housing the office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former Democratic Party chairwoman, was evacuated amid reports of a possible suspicious package. Police in the area seemed to confirm the incident in a Twitter alert:

CNN employees said Wednesday that they were evacuated as well from their New York office, after reports of a suspicious package at the Time Warner Center. CNN said the package with a suspicious device was addressed to ex-CIA director John Brennan (who is an analyst for NBC).

This comes after an explosive device was found days earlier in the mailbox of liberal billionaire George Soros, though it's unclear if the incidents are related.

As teams across the country investigate, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, in a written statement, condemned what she described as the "attempted violent attacks" against the Clintons and Obama.

“We condemn the attempted violent attacks recently made against President Obama, President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and other public figures. These terrorizing acts are despicable, and anyone responsible will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. The United States Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies are investigating and will take all appropriate actions to protect anyone threatened by these cowards,” she said, joined by President Trump and Vice President Pence, who at a separate event said those responsible will be "brought to justice."

COMMENT:  We wait for facts, not for speculation.  We don't know if these packages were sent by right wingers against the opposition, or by left wingers trying to embarrass the right, or by some foreign entity.  Beware of big mouths talking on TV.  Also beware of phone calls that might come in to news organizations, in which the caller "takes credit." 

October 24,  2018     Permalink