The Political Page, T+4 -- January 25, 2018

Update

Later, 7:30 p.m. CT: well, this will certainly throw Rush Limbaugh and a few others for a loop. Put this in your Cuban cigar and smoke it. Trump plans to accomplish what his predecessor failed to do: "fast-track" the Dreamers in exchange for the wall, other concessions. I can guarantee you the Dreamers are not concerned about the wall; they will support Trump on that if it means their citizenship. The most interesting thing: let's see if Trump's proposal is DOA or if Schumer is willing to discuss. If Schumer is unwilling to discuss, Schumer's not going to get much sleep at his Brooklyn residence.
 

Original Post

I remember President Obama drawing lines in the sand, and drawling "lines?" in the ocean. I never hear the press talking about President Trump drawing lines.

• Teddy Roosevelt: "Speak softly, and carry a big stick."
• Barack Obama: "Take a gun to a knife fight."
• Donald Trump: "Tweet 24/7, and carry a bigger stick."
• David Ige: "What's my Twitter password?"

"What brought that on?" you ask. The answer: this WSJ headline -- Iran's fast boats have stop harassing the US Navy, baffling the military. Tehran halts dangerous encounters in Persian Gulf amid tensions over nuclear deal.

The fast boats, typically armed with .50 caliber machine guns and rocket launchers, have come within shooting distance of American naval vessels, encounters that grew routine even though each one presents potential dangers to American vessels transiting through international waters.

In some of the more serious incidents, Iranian crews have directed spotlights at ship and aircraft crews, potentially blinding pilots as they conduct operations, according to U.S. military officials. In one case, an Iranian boat pointed a weapon at an American helicopter flying off a Navy vessel, officials said. In the most serious incidents, U.S. vessels have fired warning shots in return.

The Iranian boats are typically crewed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, U.S. military officials have said. The IRGC is Iran’s elite military unit and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump's approval jumps to 45%. That's in the US. In Davos, it looks like his approval rating quadrupled from 1% favorability to 4% favorability.

Who found the five months of missing e-mails? The FBI, DOJ said they were all lost. My hunch: Trump threatened the FBI/DOJ that if they couldn't find the missing e-mails he would ask the Russians to help.

Apple: people complain that Apple has too many iPhone models to choose among. This morning CNBC announced that Ford would launch 23 -- or was it 24 -- new vehicle models.

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Scotch: Re-Visited

The WSJ had an article on Scotch the other day.  I didn't write about it then because the premise of the story did not interest me: "secret documents outline effort by Diageo to buck long-held distilling traditions, prompting stiff opposition."

A couple of years ago I went through my Scotch phase. I figured out Scotch (at least in my mind) and moved on. I don't drink Scotch any more, mostly because I've lost interest, at least for the moment, and for the last six months or so.

Having said that, I did buy three holiday Scotch gift packs. They each have a small bottle of Scotch, I assume about half the usual size, and two sipping glasses. The markup was not trivial, but the sipping glasses look great, and it was a lot cheaper than flying to Scotland to buy these little glasses.

My past posts on Scotch:

• July 28, 2017, photograph only
• June 21, 2017, Talisker
• January 25, 2017, Islay Scotches
• January 14, 2017, notes from a book on Scotch 
• December 3, 2016, an article from The WSJ
• October 21, 2016, sales
• October 1, 2016, photograph only