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SEPTEMBER 3,  2017

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

FIRST RESPONSE – FROM AFP:  Washington (AFP) - The United States will launch a "massive military response" to threats from North Korea, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Sunday.  He spoke after President Donald Trump met with his national security advisers following a test of what Pyongyang said was a hydrogen bomb able to fit atop a missile.  "Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam, or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming," Mattis said.  He added: "Kim Jong-Un should take heed of the United Nations Security Council's unified voice. All members unanimously agreed on the threat North Korea poses and remain unanimous in their commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.  Okay, good tough talk.  Now we have to follow up with significant action, short of war.  And that includes the ring of steel around North Korea that I mentioned this morning.  Can't just go back to more "negotiations."

MAJOR NEWS, EARTH-SHAKING – FROM THE HILL:  First lady Melania Trump wore stilettos for her departure Saturday to Texas to meet with victims of Hurricane Harvey, after facing criticism for wearing similar shoes on a trip earlier this week.  The first lady wore a tan rain coat with the high heels as she boarded Marine One with President Trump on their way to Houston to meet with storm victims and volunteers.  When Air Force One landed, Melania Trump exited wearing jeans, a blue shirt and sneakers as well as a hat with "Texas" on it.  I don't know how I could have lived without this information.  Thank you, mainstream media.  You truly are a credit to the First Amendment.

MAJOR HACKING – FROM PJ MEDIA:  Unknown hackers may have dropped private and sensitive information on several members of President Trump's inner circle onto an open source forum called Hastebin. While the exact time stamp has been masked, the information contains personal phone numbers, email addresses, parking tickets, moving violations, the names of people related to them, and even Amazon Wish Lists. (Disturbingly, obtaining someone's Wish List on Amazon is as easy as having the email address he uses to sign into his account. Are Amazon customers aware that their wish lists are open to anyone who knows their email address?)  You'd think our government could seal off those around the president.  I'm not sure we're up to speed on cyber-security.  An enormous vulnerability for the country. 

September 3, 2017       Permalink

MORE ON KOREA – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  North Korea is claiming that its new nuclear test was actually a test of a hydrogen bomb.  A hydrogen bomb can be made many times more powerful than a standard nuclear bomb, or fission bomb.  Both the United States and the Soviet Union started testing hydrogen bombs in the early 1950s.

Some experts are saying that the size of yesterday's North Korean blast would put it at the lower end of the hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb capability.  But we still have not seen definitive proof that the North Korean device was actually thermonuclear. 

The president will meet early this afternoon with his national security team.  The advance buzz is that the group will talk about dramatically increased sanctions on North Korea, although sanctions have never worked with that country.  From Yonhap, South Korea's leading news agency:

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- The top diplomats of South Korea and the United States agreed on Sunday to push for the most powerful sanctions on North Korea during their phone discussion following its sixth nuclear test, Seoul's foreign ministry here said.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had 25-minute talks to discuss countermeasures after North Korea earlier in the day conducted what it called a successful test of a hydrogen bomb that can be mounted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Kang told Tillerson of the importance of using maximum sanctions and pressure to induce North Korea to change its behavior and come to the dialogue table, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She stressed the urgency of the efforts to prevent North Korea from realizing its goal of nuclear armament.

Kang also said Seoul will consult with the U.S. about joint measures including a new resolution by the United Nations Security Council and the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets in South Korea, according to the foreign ministry.

Tillerson affirmed that the U.S. will place the strongest-ever sanctions on North Korea based on its alliance with South Korea.

Both emphasized the need to work together in taking future steps on North Korea and shared the results of their consultations with other countries on the issue.

They agreed to have further discussion in the course of bilateral and multilateral diplomatic occasions including a U.N. General Assembly meeting scheduled for later in the month, the ministry added.

COMMENT:  I'm not sure that quite does it.  I doubt if President Trump will simply settle for more sanctions.  Here is where his instinct for the dramatic takes hold.  I would not be surprised if he chose to surround North Korea with a "ring of steel," consisting of American warships, including missile-firing submarines.  I would not be shocked if he activated the two Iowa-class battleships that, by law, are maintained in a ready state, even though they are now being used as museum ships.  The 16-inch guns of those ships, which were used against North Korea during the Korean War, two generations ago, concentrate the mind wonderfully.  North Korea is on a peninsula, very vulnerable to bombardment from the sea.

Nor would I be surprised if Mr. Trump, following the example of Jack Kennedy, mobilized reserve units as a show of resolve.

Then there is the matter of North Korea's maritime activity – especially its exporting of technology to Iran.  Is there some way we can embargo North Korea, as we did Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962?  I don't know, but I'd love to see North Korean ships stopped and inspected for any military or nuclear items.

This could be the start of something big.

September 3, 2017       Permalink

NORTH KOREA – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  Clearly, a major, deeply disturbing escalation by the NORKS.  We're still sorting all the details, but we know they just set off their largest nuclear explosion yet, are bragging that they have the hydrogen bomb, and also bragging that they can now mate their nuclear weapons to ICBMs.  Not bad for a day's work.  From Fox:

President Trump on Sunday responded to North Korea’s nuclear test, calling it “very hostile and dangerous” to the United States.

The rogue nation claimed it detonated a hydrogen bomb with "perfect success," carrying out its sixth nuclear test that drew immediate condemnation from its neighbors. Trump said on Twitter the rogue nation's actions were "hostile and dangerous." 

“North Korea has conducted a major nuclear test,” Trump said in a series of tweets. “Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States.”

North Korea in recent months has escalated its pursuit of a nuclear weapon and a long-range missile that would land such a warhead on foreign soil.

COMMENT:  We've tried to monitor as much press reaction as possible.  Of course, I have what I call the "48-hour rule."  Under that rule, the political left takes about 48 hours to organize, and then gives us the party line full blast.  Expect that to happen.  Nut in the White House.  American provocations.  Legitimate grievances by North Korea.  You can even expect Israel to be blameworthy. 

The fact is that 23 years of negotiations with the NORKS have failed.  They are developing a major nuclear and missile capacity, and their technology will be shared with Iran.  This is the legacy of Obama, and, yes, Bush and Clinton before him.

The president's options are all bad.  He knows that North Korea will never give up its nuclear program, and yet that is the only change that would enhance our own security in the Western Pacific.

Expect some kind of new action, and possibly a presidential speech from the Oval Office. 

And I wonder who Trump is listening to right now.  I mean, really listening to.  Is it the Establishment folks who run his White House, or is it some of the Trump true believers who've been forced out?

September 3,  2017     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 2,  2017

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

SHELLEY BERMAN DIES – FROM USA TODAY:  NEW YORK (AP) — Comedian Shelley Berman, who won gold records and appeared on top television shows in the 1950s and 1960s delivering wry monologues about the annoyances of everyday life, has died. He was 92.  Berman died Friday at his home in Bell Canyon, California, from complications from Alzheimer's disease, according to spokesman Glenn Schwartz.  Berman was a pioneer of a new brand of comedy that could evoke laughter from such matters as air travel discomforts and small children who answer the telephone. He helped pave the way for Bob Newhart, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and other standup comedians who fashioned their routines around the follies and frustrations of modern living.  A great talent and innovator.  Sadly, he flamed out too early, and others forged ahead of him.  But he and Mort Sahl were perhaps the most important new comics of the late 1950s.

THE WANTING OF CLOONEY – FROM THE HILL:  George Clooney joked about being president during a press conference for his new film "Suburbicon" at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.   “Would I like to be the next president? Oh, that sounds like fun,” Clooney said, according to a report in Variety.  Fellow actor and Trump critic Matt Damon reportedly interjected, “Can I just say that I’d like anybody to be the next president of the United States. Right away, please.”  While Clooney, who supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, is not likely to launch a bid for the Oval Office anytime soon, he has not shied away from ripping Trump in the past.   The media would, of course, call Clooney another Reagan, but Reagan had  been a two-term governor of our largest state, and also knew where Oklahoma was.

NATIONAL EMERGENCY – FROM DAILY CALLER:    A new report on diversity among library employees at America’s four-year colleges and universities has concluded that there are entirely too many white librarians.  Ithaka S+R, an academic research firm, released the “Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity” report on Wednesday.  As a group, librarians “are over three quarters white and nearly 90 percent white in leadership roles,” the Ithaka S+R report reveals.  The lack of “library employees of color” is a “shortcoming” in the academic library industry, the report also says.  “The library community considers diversity to be a core value. But the academic library sector has struggled with addressing equity, diversity and inclusion.”  Academic libraries have struggled with an excess of white employees for decades, notes Inside Higher Ed. Maybe African Americans would prefer some other line of work.  Did anyone think of that?

September 2, 2017       Permalink

HOW POPULAR IS TRUMP? – AT 2:20 P.M. ET:  Are the polls right at placing his approval rating at about 39%?  Or are the polls missing something, as they were just before the last election?  Salena Zito, one of the sharpest political writers around today, clearly thinks it's the latter.  From the New York Post: 

Ruffs Dale, Pa. — Hunched over in his workshop, Leon Moyer slices through a board with a miter saw, its hum piercing the air. It’s the sound of business for Moyer, who has run a sign making company in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, since 1984.

A few feet away lies a stack of signs blaring “President Donald Trump” and a pile of bumper stickers bearing the legend “CNN Sucks.” Almost a year after America sent The Donald to the White House, Moyer is still selling pro-Trump signage. Homes and businesses all over this county, which is mostly registered Democrat, continue to declare their allegiance to the Republican outsider.

“Last year, when people were asking me to make [signs] for them, I was fairly surprised. Republican political signs really aren’t a big thing for me, and, well, this is a big Democrat area. The signs were everywhere, and everyone wanted one.”

So far, Moyer estimates he’s sold “thousands” of pro-Trump signs.

How many people ordered signs for Hillary?

“One. That would be one person. Which kind of surprised me given how Democratic this area is,” he said. Moyer said he had requests for oversized Trump signs, small ones, individualized ones: “You name it, people were asking for them.”

“They still ask for them,” he added. “Not much has changed in the sentiments here for Trump.”

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's fascinating.  The point is made that voters can disapprove of some of Trump's policies, as reflected in polls, but still support him, even enthusiastically.  And sometimes, of course, they can express disapproval because they think he's not Trumpish enough.

Further, one of the oldest lines in politics tells us that you can't beat somebody with nobody.  What Democrat can beat Trump after the rough-and-tumble of a real campaign?  The question remains unanswered.

September 2, 2017       Permalink

THIS DAY – AT 12:14 P.M. ET:  September 2nd, 1945, isn't as famous as December 7th, 1941, or September 11th, 2001, but its symbolism is still great.  It was on this day in 1945, some 72 years ago, that World War II came to its official end.

The place was Tokyo Bay.  The ship was the battleship USS Missouri, supposedly chosen for the occasion because it was named for the home state of America's new president, Harry S. Truman.  The event was the signing of Japan's formal surrender.

The ceremony was routine, but the atmosphere was not.  The Japanese delegation that came aboard could not help but notice – one of the young diplomats later wrote about it in amazement– the lack of vindictiveness or mean-spiritedness on the part of the representatives of the victorious Allied nations.  Thus began a remarkable episode in American history.  General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, a man not without controversy, ran the occupation of Japan in an enlightened, thoughtful manner, helping to build Japan into a democracy, an ally of the West, and an economic power. 

Over the years Japan built a small self-defense force, and never developed nuclear weapons.  Today it is involved in a critical, soul-searching debate over whether to substantially increase that force and go nuclear, in response to the threat from nearby North Korea. 

The USS Missouri survives as a museum ship, docked at Pearl Harbor very close to the remains of the battleship USS Arizona, sunk by the Japanese on that December 7, 1941, thus starting the American phase of World War II.  Both ships were built at the New York Naval Shipyard, more popularly known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which no longer exists.  

September 2, 2017       Permalink

CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  The market works.  Colleges are now feeling the backlash from parents, applicants and taxpayers over their indulgence of leftist snowflakes and faculty clowns.  From Fox:

Both the University of Missouri and Evergreen State College have been rocked by left-wing demonstrations, some of which administrators in both schools allowed. Now both have had to deal with falling enrollment and a decline in funds - and there are fears the situation could spread to other schools.

The defining issue is whether parents and donors see administrators as capable of containing clashes and responding firmly when protests get out of control, experts say.

Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a nonprofit that advocates for a variety of higher education issues, told Fox News that how a college handles freedom of expression matters greatly to prospective students, their parents and donors.

“When they look to what college to pick, parents and students are thinking of the largest investment their family is likely to make beyond the purchase of a home,” Pfeffer Merrill said. “Across the political spectrum, one of the most essential assets is [the opportunity] to be exposed to a wide range of views.”

There is increasing concern, she said, “about a lack of openness to having a full conversation” amid a growing intolerance of views that are different or considered offensive.

“It’s senior leadership at the colleges that sets the tone,” she said.

And...

One school that has resisted the kinds of demands Missouri and Evergreen gave in to is the University of Chicago.

In the summer of 2016 incoming freshmen at the University of Chicago received a welcome letter that made the institution’s commitment to the free and open expression of ideas clear:
“Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”

COMMENT:  This year will be critical.  The left feels empowered by violent demonstrations it has mounted throughout the country.  But the backlash against violence and censorship on college campuses is also gaining strength.

Congress and state legislatures must be prepared to cut off funds from colleges that do not meet basic standards of freedom and peaceful assembly.  Some will have the courage to act.  Others will not.

September 2,  2017     Permalink