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SEPTEMBER 22,  2018

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

I'M SO DISAPPOINTED – FROM BREITBART:  Although Fahrenheit 11/9 opened this weekend on a massive number of screens, it is projected to earn a paltry $3 million.  After a decade of disappointments for the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, even the early projections for what was supposed to be Moore’s comeback film did not look promising — a mere $6 million, but the reality is even worse: half of that.
Outside of the fact he has not had a hit since Sicko grossed a respectable $24.5 million all the way back in 2007, Fahrenheit 11/9’s humiliating opening is especially embarrassing when you consider it opened in an astonishing 1,719 theaters.  The whole idea behind Moore’s anti-Trump doc was to recapture the glory days of his Fahrenheit 9/11, which opened in the summer of 2004 in just 868 theaters to an astonishing $24 million. It would go on to gross $119 million...It will be a miracle if Fahrenheit 11/9 reaches $10 million.  Moore probably thinks the audience is unworthy of him.

NOT GOOD FOR THE PROFESSOR – FROM NRO:   In written testimony sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, a third named witness has rejected the allegations made by Judge Kavanaugh’s accuser. Having been asked by a Senate staffer to comment on the charges advanced against the nominee, a lawyer for Leland Ingham Keyser wrote:  "Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford."  Under 18 U.S.C § 1001, letters to the Judiciary Committee are subject to criminal penalty if false.  Ms. Keyer, whom CNN confirms is “a lifelong friend of Ford’s,” is the third named witness to deny any knowledge of the allegations. The other two, Mark Judge and Patrick Smyth, issued written statements to that effect earlier in the week. Thus far, nobody has backed up the account advanced by Kavanaugh’s accuser, while Kavanaugh and three other named witnesses have rejected it outright.  The accuser has a moral right to be heard, but so far she's not brought one bit of evidence to the table.

GOOD ADVICE BY A BRILLIANT GUY – FROM FOX:   Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News to air Sunday that officials not on board with helping to achieve President Trump’s mission “ought to find something else to do.”  Pompeo was asked by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace about a New York Times report that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last year suggested secretly recording President Trump to expose chaos in the White House and enlisting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.  "I’m not going to comment on that in any way, other than to say this: I’ve been pretty clear since my beginning of service here in this administration, if you can’t be on the team, if you’re not supporting this mission, then maybe you ought to find something else to do,” he said.
“I’ve told that to my senior colleagues, I’ve told it to junior folks at the CIA, and the State Department; we need everyone who’s engaged in helping achieve President Trump’s mission,” he said. “And I hope that everyone in every agency: DOJ, FBI, State Department is on that mission.”  Asked if wiring the president and talking about the 25th Amendment was “not being on the team,” Pompeo said: “Not remotely.”  Well said and absolutely accurate from a man who graduated first in his class at West Point.

September 22, 2018       Permalink

BULLETIN:  AT 3:15 P.M. ET:  Professor Christine Ford, accuser of Judge Kavanaugh has kinda, sorta, agreed to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee...but only if details can be worked out.  In other words, it's a halfway "yes."  We know nothing more.  My skepticism continues.  Senator Grassley was expecting a definitive reply by 2:30 today.  He did not get one, and readers should be cautious about the phrase "agreed to testify" being bandied about on CNN and other amateur sources.  Stand by. 

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT – AT 1:58 P.M. ET:   Are we serious here?  Democrats are talking about attacking Judge Kavanaugh further, even if he is confirmed for the Supreme Court.  How low can you get?  From Fox:   

The midterm elections loom over the debate over the timetable of Kavanaugh’s confirmation process.

Should Democrats succeed in delaying the confirmation vote past November and pick up seats in the Senate in the midterms, then they will likely have enough votes to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

However, if Republicans confirm Kavanaugh before November, Democrats have indicated that the fight would not be over are raising the prospect of further investigations and even impeachment.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said that “as soon as Democrats get gavels”, the party will investigate the Kavanaugh allegations even if he is confirmed and sitting on the Supreme Court.

“This is such bad practice that even if they were to ram this guy through, as soon as Democrats get gavels we’re going to want to get to the bottom of this,” he said on CNN.

When pressed as to whether he was saying Democrats would investigate a sitting Supreme Court justice, Whitehouse said he was “confident of that.”

“And I think we’ll also be investigating why the FBI stood down its background investigation when this came up in this particular background,” he said.

His stance was backed up by Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif, who said in an interview with Fox News that there could not only be an investigation, but a push for impeachment.

“If the Republicans rush through a nominee where you have unanswered sexual assault allegations, I can promise you that Democratic senators will be interested in going and looking at those allegations, and if Judge Kavanaugh lied under oath, you could see a judicial impeachment, and that’s not good for anybody, so we should try and avoid that,” he said on “America’s Newsroom.”

COMMENT:  It is hard to exaggerate the full extent of the madness that has overcome the Democratic Party.  Can you imagine the impeachment of a sitting Supreme Court justice based on the Ford case, 36 years old, with no corroborating information? 

I suspect that saner heads will prevail, if there are any sane heads left among the Dems.

September 22, 2018       Permalink

AND SO WE WAIT ONCE MORE – AT 12:51 P.M. ET:  The new deadline awarded by Chairman Grassley to Professor Ford and her professional Democratic handlers to inform the world if Ford will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee is 2:30 p.m. today.  The last deadline was 10 p.m. last night, but extended at Ford's request.

So we wait.  My guess, only a guess, is that the Ford people will make further demands.  If they do, I hope Chairman Grassley will shut the whole thing down and proceed with a vote on Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation.  This is enough of a farce already.

There is an undercurrent of feeling that one gets on the internet that Republicans are becoming impatient with Chairman Grassley, who has been endlessly gracious toward Professor Ford.  Republicans understandably are concerned that Grassley will make the classic GOP mistake – being too nice, in the hope that the other side will then reciprocate.  Don't go there, Chuck.  The other side is run by the hard left, which doesn't play by our rules.  On the hard left there is no graciousness, no compromise, no reason, no decency, no sense of honor.  The personal is political, and winning is the only acceptable objective, no matter who gets hurt.

After his 2008 presidential defeat, John McCain expressed dismay at the way he was treated by the press.  He had always been friendly to journalists, assuming they would be fair to him.  He never calculated that, in the end, the leftist press would do what leftists always do...attack and crush.

On the left there are no friends, only interests.

September 22,  2018     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 21,  2018

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

ENDLESS.  Chairman Grassley had set a 10 p.m. deadline for Professor Ford's Democratic operative lawyer to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee whether Professor Christine Ford would testify and make her charges against Judge Kavanaugh.  As could be expected, the lawyer asked for a further extension.  This is a farce.  It's disgraceful.  From Fox:   Attorneys for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, asked the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday night for an additional day to make her decision to testify.  Shortly before midnight Friday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley tweeted that he had granted the extension, addressing the tweet to Kavanaugh.  "Judge Kavanaugh I just granted another extension to Dr Ford to decide if she wants to proceed w the statement she made last week to testify to the senate," Grassley wrote. "She shld decide so we can move on I want to hear her. I hope u understand. It’s not my normal approach to b indecisive." The Democrats are turning what should be a serious confirmation process into a partisan joke.  But the Republicans are fearful that they'll be called "anti-woman" if they don't show an excess of "sensitivity."  

WORDS FROM A GREAT MAN – FROM FOX:   The final word of the late Charles Krauthammer, the dean of conservative commentators, was announced by his son, Daniel, on Tuesday.  “The Point of It All: A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors” is a collection of works by the longtime Fox News contributor Krauthammer, a Pulitzer Prize winner, Harvard-trained psychiatrist and best-selling author. He died in June at the age of 68.   His son said Krauthammer had trusted him to bring the book ”to completion on his behalf.”  Daniel wrote in The Weekly Standard that the book, to be released in December, will “ensure that his life’s work — his words, his ideas, his extraordinary contributions to the political life of our country — will continue to live on.”  Anything Charles Krauthammer wrote is worth reading.  He was the best of the best, thoroughly civilized in a coarse world.

THE SILLY SEASON CONTINUES – FROM CBS LOCAL:   CAMBRIDGE (CBS) – Colin Kaepernick is among eight people set to be honored at Harvard University next month.  The former NFL star-turned activist will receive the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal at the Hutchins Center Honors in Cambridge on Oct. 11. It’s described as “Harvard’s highest honor in the field of African and African American studies.”  “The medal honors those who have made significant contributions to African and African American history and culture, and more broadly, individuals who advocate for intercultural understanding and human rights in an increasingly global and interconnected world,” Harvard says.  I wonder how many black lives in Chicago or Baltimore Kaepernick has saved.

September 21, 2018       Permalink

MITCH PUTS IT ON THE LINE – AT 1:53 P.M. ET:  McConnell spoke boldly this morning, and he put himself on the line.  From The Hill: 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday said that Brett Kavanaugh will be on the Supreme Court "in the very near future" even as President Trump's nominee faces a sexual assault allegation.  

"You've watched the fight, you've watched the tactics, but here's what I want to tell you: In the very near future Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court," McConnell said while speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.

He added that Trump has "nominated a stunningly successful individual" and told conservatives not to get "rattled" because Senate Republicans are going to "plow right through it." 

McConnell's comments come as a sexual assault allegation has thrown the timeline for a potential vote on Kavanaugh's nomination into limbo. 

Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate. They can only lose one GOP senator before they would need to lean on Democrats for help getting Kavanaugh confirmed. 

Several Senate Republicans remain on the fence, but McConnell's comments indicate that he remains confident that Kavanaugh will get the 50 votes needed to be confirmed. 

Republicans had wanted to get Kavanaugh confirmed by the end of the month, but that timeline has slipped after Christine Blasey Ford publicly accused Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed and attempting to forcibly remove her clothes at a party in the early 1980s.

Kavanaugh has denied any wrongdoing. 

McConnell's speech came as a 10 a.m. Friday deadline set by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for Ford to let the panel know if she would testify at a Monday hearing came and went without an announcement. 

Ford's lawyer told Judiciary Committee staff in an email Thursday that the Monday hearing and the Friday morning deadline for a prepared copy of her testimony was a "non-starter."  

Ford's lawyer had similarly shot down the Monday hearing during an email sent Thursday, while leaving the door open to a hearing later in the week. 
“
She wishes to testify, provided that we can agree on terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,” Debra Katz wrote asking to talk with Judiciary Committee staff about the “conditions” for such testimony.

COMMENT:  The Republicans must stand firm against any stunt to turn the hearings into a Democratic Party convention, which is the intent.  I would not be shocked if the sides fail to come to terms.  In that case, the committee should simply vote.

September 21, 2018       Permalink

QUOTES OF THE DAY – AT 12:52 P.M. ET:  There is nothing new at this hour on the Kavanaugh case.  Presumably, Senate Republicans are negotiating with Professor Ford over her demands, which are ridiculous.  We don't yet know if she'll actually testify. 

However, there are two quotes that I think sum things up rather nicely.  The first is from Candace Owens, the young black woman who has made such an impression in the last year.  From Fox: 

Candace Owens spoke out Tuesday on Fox & Friends against the actions of Senate Democrats, accusing them of "politicizing" sexual assault.

"We have reached peak lunacy on the left. This is, by the way, the most disgusting thing they have done yet," Owens said.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford publicly identified herself Sunday as the previously anonymous person who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of trying to rape her at a party in the 1980s when both were in high school in Maryland. 

Ford's accusation was made known by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who announced that she sent the tip to the FBI in July.

Owens, Turning Point USA's communications director, said she has spoken out from the start against the #MeToo movement, and that in Kavanaugh's case, it's being "hijacked" by the left in order to block his confirmation. 

"Any movement that is rooted in victimization is going to be hijacked and weaponized by the left, and that's exactly what we're seeing happen here."

Amen.  And the next, from Professor Alan Dershowitz: 

On "Fox & Friends" on Friday, Alan Dershowitz said the "most disturbing" thing about the controversy surrounding Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh is seeing people on television immediately accept Kavanaugh's sexual assault accuser as a victim and Kavanaugh as a perpetrator.

California professor Christine Blasey Ford has publicly accused Kavanaugh of attempted rape at a house party in the early 1980s when they were both high school students in Maryland.

Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor emeritus, took issue with the fact that many lawmakers, pundits and celebrities have apparently assumed that Ford's allegation is 100 percent accurate.

"Are women born with a special gene for telling the truth and men with a special gene for lying?"

Dershowtiz asked. "I don't believe her. I don't believe him. I have an open mind. I want to hear both sides of the story and make a determination."

"That's what the American system of justice is all about."

COMMENT:  Amen to both.  They both speak sense.  The notion that Judge Kavanaugh's accuser has an automatic right to be believed, which is being peddled by the Democratic Party and in parts of Hollywood, is an insult to thinking women.  It's patronizing and outrageous. 

September 21, 2018       Permalink

PRESIDENT STEADY – AT 12:08 P.M. ET:  With all the turmoil in Washington, you'd expect the president's poll ratings to be volatile.  They're not, at least according to the Rasmussen tracker: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 49% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 36% who Strongly Approve of the president is performing and 43% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -7.

COMMENT:  We stress again that this is only one poll.  Others put the president much lower, but Rasmussen has a history of accuracy, and is the only daily tracker left.  It also polls likely voters, rather than registered voters, or citizens with heartbeats.

There are also a number of state polls that we're looking at.  For the moment, the midterms looks difficult to call.  The election is a month and a half away, with no discernible trend.  We should know more in a few weeks, although we should remember that the outcome of the 2016 presidential race was a complete surprise.

September 21,  2018     Permalink