Saturday, September 15, 2018
A hurricane-free hello!
…at least in Northern Virginia. We had been told by breathless media and local government since early in then week that today and tomorrow would consist of heavy rain and dangerous winds. Naturally, today dawned clear, calm and menacing. The shelves in the supermarkets, however, were picked over as if a nuclear attack were imminent. At what point are urgent warnings no longer prudent but irresponsible and fear-mongering? At what point do they undermine the ability to get the public to take warnings seriously when there is a genuine threat? This area plays Chicken Little so often and with such speculative provocation that I don’t trust the prognostications at all any more.
And who the heck buys up all the pickles to prepare for flooding?
1. Ethics Dunce: John Kerry. But anyone who didn’t know that by now wouldn’t be convinced by me, so I’ll just include poor, sad, useless and deluded John in a Saturday afternoon potpourri that hardly anyone reads. But what a jerk. We don’t enforce the Logan Act that prohibits private citizens from mucking around in our diplomacy, but under what justification can he argue for his negotiating with Iran? There is literally no good he can accomplish (there was little good he could accomplish when he was authorized to engage in diplomacy), and now his interference does is undermine the elected President and government.
Trump’s tweet…
John Kerry had illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime, which can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American people. He told them to wait out the Trump Administration! Was he registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act? BAD!
…was predictably juvenile and superfluous, but, incredibly, Kerry’s return tweet was worse, and might as well have consisted of “Nyah nyah nyah!”
Mr. President, you should be more worried about Paul Manafort meeting with Robert Mueller than me meeting with Iran’s FM. But if you want to learn something about the nuclear agreement that made the world safer, buy my new book, Every Day Is Extra:
Wow. Begin by passing along the “resistance” myth that there just has to be some smoking gun proving the President rigged the election, follow it up with the batty theory that giving the #1 purveyor of world terrorism billions of dollars to play with “makes the world safer,” and then hint that the real reason he’s openly interfering with U.S. diplomacy is to sell his book.
Yechhh.
2. A plug for a really smart friend who debunked a Democrat smear: Senator Feinstein’s despicable desperation sliming of Brett Kavanaugh, a real “Have you no decency at all?”-worthy moment, prompted a nasty conspiracy theory yesterday. The fact that the GOP could rapidly release a letter with 65 female acquaintances from the nominee’s high school years certifying that his anonymous accuser has described conduct wildly out of character being cited as proof that the alleged episode was already known by the administration, and thus has some basis in fact.
Virginia Hume, known to some as the politically active daughter of veteran broadcast journalist Britt Hume and known to me as a smart, clever, astute woman who worked for me 30 years ago, authored a piece for the Weekly Standard explaining how the letter came together so quickly. She knows, because she signed it.
She writes in part…
“The letter was conceived and drafted by friends of Brett’s, and it was drafted after allegations came out on Thursday. I learned about the letter from a friend and fellow signatory. Others learned about it the same way. Those surprised at the speed with which it came together should see it as yet another testament to Brett’s excellent reputation”
Elsewhere in the article are examples of Virginia’s characteristic wit. I can vouch without reservation for her honesty and integrity. I would trust her with my life. More than that, I would trust her with my dog.
3. The wages of anti-gun hysteric fear-mongering. Thank you, David Hogg, et al. At Bethel Park High School in the Pittsburgh area, an active shooter drill was scheduled last week. The drill was to include the gunfire from blanks, shot by police. Strangely, some parents questioned the wisdom of this. I sure would have; indeed, I would have registered a protest and kept my son out of school that day. The odds of any student being killed by a shooter in school is infinitesimal, and such a drill accomplishes nothing other than making students feel less safe than they should, and making anti-gun zealots feel smug.
4. Back to Florence hype…As Tropical Storm Florence hit the Carolinas yesterday, a Weather Channel reporter Mike Seidel appeared—pretended?— be having trouble standing as he battled wind gusts. While he acted as if he was about to be blown away, two men came on camera behind him, casually walking along like they were in Northern Virginia. Now the Weather Channel is trying to explain the disparity.
It serves them right for using the “reporter in the storm” stunt in the first place. It is stupid and irresponsible, and completely unnecessary. Sooner or later, one of these rain-soaked, wind-torn fools will be beheaded on camera by flying debris, and THEN stations will end the practice.
I recommend stopping before a tragedy.